Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • August 17, 2011 Ridgewood Auditorium metamorphoses into Mount Olympus by John Koster Children at the Ridgewood Library program on Greek gods and myths had a chance to meet Victoria Weinberg and Bobby Kruger, two strolling players who brought the tales of Mount Olympus alive as part of the summer reading program. Using an interactive, high-energy style that the pre-school and grade school children enjoyed immensely, Weinberg and Kruger, who work for the Traveling Lantern Theater Company based in Portland, Oregon, involved the children in tales featuring the great-great-great-grandson of the author of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” – also named Homer – along with King Midas and his golden touch and Halcyone and her unending love for her husband. Like the ancient Greeks, the two skilled and energetic young actors used quick changes of costumes and employed oversized handheld masks to turn into characters who introduced the children to the timeless Greek myths – and help them laugh and get excited with the fast-break action and broad, comedic characterization. “Do you know what an oracle is?” Weinberg asked the children in the near-capacity Belcher Auditorium. “No,” the children answered in unison. Shortly, she was one – bearded, bent, blindfolded, and impersonating the famous seer Tiresias, who turns up in the “Odyssey,” “Oedipus Rex,” and a number of other stories. Kruger, using a burlap bag filled with golden artifacts, told the story of King Midas, whose touch turned everything to gold – including the food he tried to eat, the wine he tried to drink, and, according to some stories, his own beloved daughter. Midas had to relinquish all his gold to be able to eat, drink, and get his daughter back. “He learned that some things are more important than wealth,” Kruger explained to the children. Back in a stephane – a sort of tiara worn by upper-class Greek women – and a flowing flame-orange dress, Weinberg became Pirena Morpheus – “fire and sleep”-- a muse who task it was to inspire mortals in poetry, art, and dance. “Muses don’t create art, they inspire it,” she explained. “They help you to find the story.” The actors then portrayed the touching tale of Halcyone, who lost her husband Ceyx in a shipwreck, but whose decision to join him – the actors euphemized her suicide – caused seven days of fair weather and inspired the term “halcyon days” for peaceful times at sea. Kruger impersonated Morpheus, the god of sleep, with a black cloth over his face while Weinberg played Halcyone. “They’re gods and goddesses, and it’s folklore,” Weinberg said of the appeal of the performance. “Sometimes I think that the adults enjoy it more than the children,” Kruger said. “The morals of the stories don’t change. You can get an expanded world view.” Victoria Weinberg and Bobby Kruger took on various roles as they presented Greek myths at the Ridgewood Library.