Actors, costumes and sets bring Narnia to life in Liberty Lake

The team at Theatre Arts Center at the Lake has deemed its 2024-25 season the “Season of Imagination.” The season began with Roald Dahl’s “Willy Wonka” and was followed by “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” based on the novel by Barbara Robinson.

After visiting a magical chocolate factory and putting on an atypical but heartfelt Christmas pageant, the team is taking audiences to another magical land during its production of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

The show begins with the Pevensie children – Lucy (Evelyn Long), Edmund (Thomas Dalton), Peter (Benjamin Milonas) and Susan (Michaela Neary) – being evacuated from London and sent to the countryside in order to escape the Blitz. It’s there they find a wardrobe that transports them to a magical world called Narnia.

While interacting with those who call Narnia home, the Pevensie children learn that their arrival is part of a prophecy that promises to bring an end to the White Witch’s (Bridget Haynos) rule. The children also learn that they have to gather those who live in Narnia in support of Narnia’s true ruler, a lion named Aslan (Kylen Braileanu), to take down the White Witch.

The show also features Cayla Hoke (Fenris Ulf), Juneau Grosvenor (dwarf), Aaron Goldstein (Tumnus), Samuel Meyer (Mr. Beaver), Christi Haynos (Mrs. Beaver), Darby Shuster (unicorn), Caleb Schumacher (centaur), Thorin Scully (fox), Clive Green (elf), Jayden Castillo (white stag) and Nicole Spencer, Asher Milonas, Poppie Littleford and Elias Bowdon (wood nymphs).

The play is an adaptation of the book of the same name, part of the “Chronicles of Narnia” series, written by C.S. Lewis. The show features Benji Bower and Barnaby Race, lyrics by Race and a book by Adam Peck.

“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” which is directed by Jeff Rocco, opens Friday and runs through Feb. 23.

A fan of the “Narnia” series growing up, Rocco has enjoyed rediscovering elements of the story that he didn’t quite grasp as a child, like Lewis’ faith, now that he’s looking at it from an adult perspective.

With a fairly young cast, ranging in age from 9 to mid-20s, Rocco has taken to breaking down some of those themes during rehearsals. He makes sure the discussions stay at their level but said the cast, though young, is able to comprehend the deeper moments Lewis added to the story.

The young cast is also preternaturally good at forming true bonds with one another, with Rocco saying the group has gotten along atypically well. Those bonds stood out when it came time to cast the Pevensie children.

“Kids are very much in the world of making friends and being social,” he said. “When you’re trying to cast sibling relationships, you look for kids who are helping the other ones out in auditions, or who are interacting with their peers more so than others. Once you find kids who are open to recreating that familial bond on stage, the rest takes care of itself.”

Because this show features so many non-human characters, some productions of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” have featured actors manipulating puppets on stage. For his production, Rocco has chosen to have actors perform all the roles themselves, believing having actors on stage allows audience members to better identify with the characters and their place in the story.

To add authenticity to the non-human characters, Rocco and the cast worked on recreating an animal’s walk and mannerisms.

“Even when you’re playing the role of a person, in this case the Witch, how does the Witch walk?” Rocco said. “She walks very proudly, very tall, very good posture. How does that look for a beaver? They walk with quick movements and rocking from side to side.”

It’s been fun for Rocco to watch the actors make choices for their animal characters. Goldstein, playing a faun named Tumnus, is working on how to accentuate his legs in costume to appear more faun-like, for example, while Rocco noticed Meyer and Christi Haynos, playing Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, respectively, keep their arms close to their chests, even while holding their scripts during rehearsal.

Costume-wise, many actors will have a tail and animal ears, while Shuster, playing the unicorn, will have a horn and Castillo, playing the white stag, will have antlers.

The costumes are only half the magic, of course, with the set making up the other half. To bring the magical world of Narnia to life, Rocco and the team have added trees, some artificial and some painted on the set, to the stage.

“What we really tried to do is bring the magic of Narnia and make it look otherworldly,” Rocco said. “Narnia is one of many very well-known fantastical worlds, so that’s really what we aimed for is trying to make it fantastical and fun for audiences to experience.”

Bringing Narnia to the Theatre Arts Center at the Lake stage required a bit of the imagination the current season is centered on. Rocco also believes the script itself, which tells a tale of redemption via talking animals and a bit of symbolism, is an act of imagination on Lewis’ part.

No matter the production, a little imagination, and some of that Narnia magic, goes a long way in theater. Rocco said experiencing that magic should be something everyone makes an effort to do.

“Theater is so powerful in so many ways, and I hope that people can get to the theater and experience something that can add to their life experience,” he said. “I hope that this show can do that, even if it’s something as simple as rediscovering something that you used to know or introducing you to something that maybe you’re not so familiar with. That’s the magic of theater, and I encourage everyone to experience theater in one way or another for that reason.”

Theatre Arts Center at the Lake’s Season of Imagination continues with Tracy Wells’ “One Stoplight Town” in March and “The Spongebob Musical,” which features a book by Kyle Jarrow, in May.