“Charlotte’s Web” brings a trio of firsts to Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in Center Valley.
E.B White’s beloved children’s classic, adapted by Joseph Robinette, “Charlotte’s Web” opens for the first time at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (PSF) on the campus of DeSales University.
The first summer show aimed at young audiences since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the long-running festival’s live summer performance slate during 2020, “Charlotte’s Web” offers family-fun for all ages.
The show premieres on PSF’s first-ever outdoor stage, the Air Products Open Air Theatre, specifically built to provide an open air, outdoor summer theater experience.
“I think the show is an appropriate place to come back from” the coronavirus pandemic, said Matt Pfeiffer, “Charlotte’s Web” director, a PSF actor and a DeSales theater program alumni.
Pfeiffer said much of PSF’s previous children’s programming and backlist of repertoire had been light-hearted, fun fare with performances of “The Little Mermaid,” “Cinderella” and “Robin Hood” as cherished favorites.
“‘Charlotte’s Web’ is also children’s entertainment, which attempts to talk about death and loss,” he explained.
For many youngsters the coronavirus pandemic has changed their world, or at the very least, their general world-view.
Some children may have lost family members or friends to the virus, and just about all facets of daily life have been upended because of it.
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