Touching, Twisted Slices of Life : Show’s Sketches Written, Acted by Adult-Child Cast

Cheryl Rhoads couldn’t decide between working with her friends in an adult comedy troupe or helping her students do a children’s theater show, so she combined them both.

A Toluca Lake actress, director and improvisation teacher, Rhoads--who has appeared on “The Tracey Ullman Show” and on a video as Mother Goose--brought together fellow professionals and young performers to write and act in the show “Accompanied by Adults.”

Then, parents also pitched in to stage, publicize and take tickets for the show at the First Church of Religious Science Auditorium in Burbank.

The outcome is a riotous series of sketches from a five-adult, seven-child cast whose ages span three decades. The show is more like “Saturday Night Live” than “Sesame Street,” yet children in the audience enjoy the show as much as adults.

What is it like for the adult actors?

“Well, I’m never having children now,” quipped Maura Soden after a recent show, bopping one of her younger cast members on the head. Soden, a regular on Fox TV’s “Totally Hidden Video” and a familiar face on commercials, said she was given helpful acting tips by the tykes in the cast.

“None of us have children, so it has been very different,” said Rhoads, who has coached child actors for three years. “We treat each other as equals.”

In fact, the show’s first number parodies how adult performers are often overshadowed by younger actors, directors and producers as adult actress Denise Pickering--most recently from an “Anything But Love” episode and a Robitussin commercial--desperately auditions for the part of a child’s voice.

In a skit she wrote, 10-year-old Jessica Koosed flaunts her bizarre hat collection, and in another self-written sketch, Risa Schiffman, 10, shrinks her dog with a diet dog food. High school student Chris Guanlao, 15, wrote a funny skit about hating girls--he insists he doesn’t--and later in the show performs as Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

“I’ve been following the news a lot now” to see what Hussein acts like, “but I’ve essentially put together a whole bunch of dictators,” Chris said.

In one skit, veteran actor Jim Suva imitates Richard Nixon, and during rehearsals some of the children asked, “He was a President, wasn’t he?”

“It makes you feel so old,” Suva groaned. “The best thing working with these kids is that their imaginations have no preset boundaries or preconceived ideas.”

Brothers Evan and Justin Silverman, 11 and 13, respectively, who perform together in a mime company, co-wrote three of the show’s skits. Their father, Marshall Silverman, volunteered as musical director in his spare time from his position as film studio executive.

“It’s amazing to me how age is entirely irrelevant in how they work together,” said the elder Silverman, who watched many rehearsals to learn his piano cues. “There is a mutual respect and cooperation.”

The adults coached Evan to play the ever-smiling President Jimmy Carter, who took office before Evan was born. “It’s all a way of passing the torch of our knowledge to another generation of actors,” Rhoads said. “We learn from each other, and each other’s life experiences.”

Many of the sketches are written from real life, such as the one with Gary O’Brien, a stand-up comic and magician, whose foot is in a cast in one scene. “I really broke my leg early in rehearsals and the kids were ad-libbing and suddenly we came up with a sketch,” O’Brien said.

In a particularly touching scene written by Rhoads, 11-year-old Cheryl Bloch plays Rhoads’ “inner child” who has come to life in an odd twist to the 1990s self-discovery trend. Then, young actress/writer Cheryl wrote a sophisticated sketch about a mixed-up fairy and plays a vindictive Snow White who gets even with Cinderella while Soden plays a goofy fairy godmother.

In another hilarious skit, both women and girls play wives of dictators, murderers and monsters who attend a self-help seminar. Imagine the wives and mistresses of Attila the Hun, Adolf Hitler, Frankenstein, King Henry the VIII and others together at a 12-step meeting.

“Bringing these hip topics into comic situations is something that comes from my childhood when I learned about adult issues from ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle’ cartoons,” Rhoads said. “We use comedy to educate and entertain without talking down to our audiences, no matter what age.”

Since rehearsals started in early summer, children and adults have juggled jobs, school, auditions, summer camp and acting lessons to put on the show. To reflect their busy lives--and friendship--Soden and Rhoads wrote a scene about two friends who never have time to get together until they get to heaven. “We make fun of real-life situations, because it’s often funnier than anything we can dream up,” Rhoads said.

Some of the real-life behind-the-scenes stories are pretty funny. Jessica Koosed once knocked all the power down at the church by tripping over a fuse during rehearsal. During a show, Justin Silverman found himself holding up a wobbly backdrop through a whole scene until someone helped him. And 12-year-old Julia Dosik helped mastermind a gossipy newsletter about the cast--and charged them if anyone cared to read it.

“It’s been a whole lot of fun, we’re like a family,” said Julia, who has performed with Cal State Northridge’s Teenage Drama Workshop.

“We fight like a family,” Rhoads added.

Occasionally, the cast gets autographs from the audience--as happened recently when Christopher Burke from “Life Goes On” came to the show and stayed after to congratulate the cast.

Billed as Los Angeles’ “first comedy review by and for both adults and kids,” the actors will make money only if they draw enough of a crowd to pay for the use of the theater. Then, the profits are split 12 ways.

“Accompanied by Adults” is performed at the First Church of Religious Science Auditorium, 260 N. Pass Ave., Burbank, every Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. through Nov. 4 (except Oct. 20). Tickets are $5 for children, $7 for adults and refreshments are included. Call (818) 377-8953.