On Theater: ‘Boxcar Children’ roll through

“The Boxcar Children” will be rumbling through Laguna Beach this weekend, but if you pause to ponder whether or not to see them, you might miss out.

This abbreviated production of the Laguna Playhouse Youth Theater — on stage tonight through Sunday — traces its lineage back to 1924 in a novel by Gertrude Chandler Warner. It took nearly a century before Barbara Field adapted the story for the stage in 1999.

“The Boxcar Children” are four orphaned siblings, ages 5 to 14, who survive by their wits during the Great Depression. When their parents drown in a boating accident, the kids run away when they overhear talk of putting them into separate foster homes.

The youngsters will have none of that. Instead, they find an abandoned railroad boxcar and turn it into their home.

“The play reiterates the feeling of community and family,” director Kelly Herman said, “and that family sometimes takes different shapes and forms than what we think it’s supposed to be.”

The play, “explores the themes of personal integrity, maturity and making do with what you have,” she said. “In tough economic times, people begin to appreciate the things in life that cannot be bought, like the generosity and kindness of friends, family and strangers.

“With our current economic situation, it’s a reminder that we can make good things happen even when we don’t have a lot,” Herman said.

Enacting the orphaned children in the Laguna production will be Sydney Miller, Sophia Tupy, Jeremy Carter and Gianna Cancellieri.

Herman said that the production is being staged as it would have been done in the real Depression.

“The actors never leave the stage and all the music and sound effects are done on stage,” she said.

“The Boxcar Children” is the sort of “wild card” in the Youth Theater season. While the other two shows have two-weekend runs, the more mature, relevant production is only staged for three days and six performances.

If You Go

What: “The Boxcar Children”

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road

When: 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. today, 2 and 7: 30 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $20 for adult tickets, $18 for children

Information: (949) 497-2787

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.