Dora and Danielle

Tony Dodero

I called my wife from the office the other day and told her I had

some news for my oldest daughter.

“Danielle, I have a question to ask you.”

“What dada?,” she replied.

“Do you know who Dora the Explorer is?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I have her towel.”

Danielle, my 5-year-old daughter and her sister Kristen, 3, it

turns out are big fans of the popular “Dora the Explorer” cartoon

that appears weekday mornings on the Nickelodeon Jr. network and

Saturdays on CBS.

So when I asked them if they’d like to go see “Dora the Explorer

Live: Search for the City of Lost Toys,” at the Orange County

Performing Arts Center, they were very excited.

And they weren’t disappointed.

Wednesday night kicked off the opening night of Dora, and the four

of us spent the evening amid a cheering throng of toddlers, flashing

their stars and lights back and forth.

The musical play is a colorful and whimsical journey through

pyramids and jungles and on to the City of Lost Toys with Dora and

her monkey sidekick, Boots, in search of Dora’s lost teddy bear.

Admittedly, I had not watched one second of a “Dora the Explorer”

cartoon, but Danielle had, and she kindly explained a few of the

characters and some of the story lines along the way.

“There’s Dora’s backpack,” she said, pointing at the press kit I

got for the show.

There was Boots and Swiper the Fox and Backpack and plenty more.

“What’s that thing?” I asked Danielle, pointing to the round,

tube-shaped character that kept singing and dancing across the stage.

“That’s the Map, Dada,” she said incredulously. Right, a character

called Map on a show about exploring. Made sense to me.

No such tutoring was needed for the crowd that delighted in Dora’s

exploits, imaginary friends and comical expressions.

Feeling a little old and uninformed on all things Dora, I asked

Danielle to put together some questions for me to ask Luzma Ortiz,

the 25-year-old actress who plays the stage version of Dora that is

touring the country.

Kristen didn’t have any questions.

“Tell her, her name starts with the same letter as mine,” Danielle

said. “Duh, duh, Danielle. Duh duh, Dora.”

Ah, the magic of preschool phonics.

She had a few more questions for her also.

“Ask her how does she know Spanish?’” Danielle said.

“Because I’m Latino,” the actress told me.

Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer is the No. 1 rated preschool

television show in the country. Dora is a 7-year-old girl, who

through her imagination, travels to jungles, beaches and rainforests.

She tells her stories in a bilingual mix of English and Spanish.

“Vamanos, let’s go,” she tells the crowd as she readies for her

many journeys.

Before the show, I wondered how a 25-year-old would be able to

pass herself off as a 7-year-old. But after watching Luzma Ortiz

perform Wednesday, I have to say I was left convinced that she was

still in elementary school.

“I don’t think it’s hard at all,” Ortiz said about playing a

child. “I truly believe there is a kid inside of everybody. Everybody

knows how to goof off and have fun.”

“Dora the Explorer Live: Search for the City of Lost Toys” began

its tour more than a year ago in New York City. It’s directed by Gip

Hoppe and written by Chris Gifford, who created the TV show with

Valerie Walsh and Eric Weiner.

While Ortiz didn’t start with the show in New York, she really

isn’t still in elementary school as I suspected. In fact, when Dora

first kicked off in New York, that’s exactly where Ortiz was at the

time, studying at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. A

recipient of the Inland Theatre League Award, the Corona native is

the daughter of acclaimed South American Harp Soloist Alfredo Rolando

Ortiz.

“For a whole year before I got this job, people kept telling me:

‘Oh my god, you look like Dora the Explorer,’” Ortiz said. While she

knew who Dora was, she had never watched the show. “Being a starving

student in New York, I couldn’t afford cable.”

She said she’s since learned that she and Dora are very much

alike.

“She’s very, very sweet and a very endearing person, and she cares

a lot about everybody else,” Ortiz said. And her portrayal of Dora

really made that seem true, said Danielle.

“She’s nice,” Danielle said. “She looks nice.”

And what about the audience? Some 500 screaming kids jumping up

and down and waving stars?

“The audience participation is one of my favorite parts of the

show because the kids get so excited because they know the answer,”

she said. “They love knowing the answer. And I love hearing them sing

the songs. Their voices are just little. It’s so cute. It’s 500

little kids singing at the same time.”

Yep, my wife and I can vouch for that. Lots of kids screaming, er,

singing at the same time.

At the end of the show, I asked Danielle to sum up my story and

tell everybody what was her favorite part.

“I liked the numbers,” she said, referring to characters who came

out dressed as the numbers 1, 2 and 3. “Because they’re funny.”