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Children's theater is many things: earnest, slapstick, musical, literary, lavish, bare bones, amateur, professional, youth casts, adult casts. It isn't always good, however.
To be that, no matter what the style, it needs creative energy, an assured rhythm and an audience connection that sparks. Otherwise, no amount of fancy trimmings, or lack thereof, matter.
Imagination-in-Residency, with performances in the Encino Community Center's functional auditorium, is about as no-frills as children's theater gets, but with its deceptively simple storybook romps, this new, vibrant company of adults has been proving it knows what's good.
A single set piece painted with less artistry than good intentions; occasional echoing acoustics; and the misspelling of "Andersen" in the program are the only flaws in the company's newest production, "Three Tales by Hans Christian Andersen," a well-executed, genuinely humorous trio of fairy tales: "The Swineherd," "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Princess and the Pea."
Adapted by Karen Hardcastle and directed by Elizabeth Tobias, the tales cleverly segue into one another. When the princess (Kristianne Kurner) marries her canny, clothes-loving Swineherd (Francis Gercke), he becomes the vain Emperor, destined to be taken in by a pair of charlatan tailors (Kurner and Bonnie Kovar). Properly humbled, the Emperor becomes the father of a silly prince (Gercke again), whose...