Because most of our play productions do not provide principal roles for more than one or two of the younger children, I have developed abridged adaptations of classic stories featuring our Littlest Players. The acting roles are formidable in their literacy and depth but simplified enough to capture the innocence and delight that young children always bring to performance. These mini-shows allow the children to double cast several roles and thus enhance and refine their characterization and memorization skills. Sets and costumes can be simple and homemade with nothing but a screen needed to provide a generic background. The mini-productions run about 45 minutes and are staged as a pre-show to the main play. They can also be performed on their own merit.

Childhood is the most joyful time to impress the "nobler way" as Alexandre Dumas wrote. A child's heart is just waiting to be filled with everything that is vibrant with truth and beauty, purity and love. These hold their value in the soul and provide the safety net against the onslaught of cynicism and every seductive call of society and peer group. These possessions of the heart also lay the foundation of proper instincts for moral discernment and rational analysis.

I wonder at the low life that is depicted in movies, on television, and in so much of our contemporary literature for children. Gone are the role models of righteousness and truth; gone is the upholding of man and the reverence toward women; gone are the components of logic and reason that form, in all enlightened cultures, the bedrock of character. Through dramatization of the classics, we encourage our children to own and treasure our Judeo-Christian heritage, rich as it is in goodness, literacy and faith.

Our Littlest Players series is exciting and joyous because it brings anew to our children all that we know to be true and just and beautiful. Our little ones love playing these grand roles and the audiences love being so splendidly entertained and uplifted.