Those of us of a certain age remember Saturday mornings as the time to watch cartoons. Long before 24-hour kid-friendly channels and the Cartoon Network, Saturday was the ONLY day where you could plop yourself in front of the television and zone out for a few hours watching your favorite super heroes and animated characters.
But now, a group called B-Sides & Rarities, which is a partner project of The 14/48 Projects, is bringing family-friendly theater it calls Saturday Morning Cartoons to The Pocket Theater, 8312 Greenwood Ave. N., in November. The show starts at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 8, 15 and 22.
Saturday morning cartoons were a staple of the childhoods of B-Sides producers Jim Jewell, Paul Shipp, and Joe Zavadil, but are anachronistic for today’s kids raised on 24-hour access to animated delights. “Saturday mornings used to belong to kids,” says Jewell. “I remember waiting all week for that one day I could binge on cartoons for hours. So, we wanted to try and create that same feeling with some fun live theater, and what better way to understand what kind of art kids want to see than engaging them in the creation of it?”
The result is five all-new plays written by local playwrights based on ideas generated by their children, all in the spirit of Saturday morning cartoons. Saturday Morning Cartoons features:
- Don’t Touch That Dial! by Penelope Venturini and Marcy Rodenborn
- Roderick Saves the World (or at least the Day) by Finn Judd and Maria Glanz
- Feline Fitness by Olivia and Jim Jewell
- The Family Jynx by Jack and Joe Zavadil
- Magical Man and the Space Needle of Hideousness by Declan, Keelan, and Paul Mullin
Tickets for Saturday Morning Cartoons are available at The Pocket Theater website and are $10 adults/$5 kids online (or $14/$7 at the door). Seating is general admission and all children MUST be accompanied by an adult. More information can be found at the B-Sides & Rarities Facebook page at facebook.com/bsidesrarities or at The 14/48 Projects website.
