Fair! fi! fo! Fun!

Aug. 26, 2007

BY J.J. HARRIER/Frontiersman

Talking vegetables don't lie - sugar is bad for you.

TBA Theater's production of “Fe Fi Farm Fun” at the MTA Creation Station at the Alaska State Fair proves you can teach nutrition to young ones in a fun way.

On Saturday, warm weather brought a much-needed peak in attendance for the fair, with many people ducking out of the busy foot traffic into the MTA Creation Station for a chance to take their kids into another world free of rides, junk food and chaos.

What they found, many by surprise, was a museum of amusement.

MTA's Creation Station's theater, erected inside the Don Sheldon building located on the Red Trail of the Alaska State Fairgrounds, is filled with tables holding educational, yet entertaining, projects aimed at teaching youngsters.

The Imaginarium tables have loads of hands-on projects involving the human skeletal system, natural energy and everything science. There are also a slew of games and athletic challenges adults seem to enjoy even more.

But every two to three hours, “Fe Fi Farm Fun” delivers the real goods.

The show begins with Devlin Dastardly, the “meanest man in the whole wide world,” who's busy trying to buy up the Matanuska Valley to build a factory. Only Old MacDonald, Jack, Jill and a couple of very unusual friends stand in his way.

Old MacDonald, a puppet in the show, lives on his farm in Palmer and is ready to begin production on his large summer vegetable crops. All seems to be going well until Dastardly (Michael Fawcett) comes along. He wants Old MacDonald's farm destroyed. Jack (David Fink) and Jill (Angela Janssen), Old MacDonald's chipper grandchildren, are lending a hand for the summer and fall victim to Dastardly's conniving plots.

They befriend a talking pair of vegetables, Gormy the pumpkin and Brass the cabbage, both puppet-like creations. The nutty twosome deliver effective comedy for the audience.

That Dastardly tries his best to foil MacDonald's crops.

First with root maggots he adds to the fields. But Gormy, Brass and the young and noisy audience step in to stop Dastardly from succeeding.

Next, the curly mustachioed villain succeeds in giving large amounts of junk food to Jack, making him very ill. The audience steps in to help Jack into his barrel for a nice rest. Fresh fruits and veggies are the cure for Jack's snacking woes.

Now annoyed, Dastardly shoots weed seed (ping-pong balls shot out of a weed spreader) into the audience and four more audience members are chosen to help sort out the vegetables and weed seed into separate containers. Dastardly is foiled again.

In his last attempt to ruin Old MacDonald, Dastardly sprays the audience with pesticide (water) which he hopes will kill of all of Nature's goodness. But Old MacDonald has a surprise for our villain in the end.

The audience, filled with exhausted fair goers and weary eyed children, have a mixed reaction to the commotion of the show.

Ping-pongs fly into the audience at high speeds and most people get wet from Dastardly's water oozey, but everyone seemed to enjoy the festive nature of all the commotion in the end. The fun, and fact, filled show comes off without a hitch as kids have a blast learning valuable lessons.

“Fe Fi Farm Fun” endorses the value of wholesome foods, local farming and hard work - all done within 30 minutes of festive music and enough participation from the kids who attend to make them ready to press on at a more than busy fair day.

Students from the TBA Theater Inc. Group, a nonprofit Anchorage-based theater company, worked with MTA to put on the family show.

David Fink, who plays the goofy and kid friendly Jack in “Fe Fi Farm Fun,” said he's been working at the Alaska State Fair, in one form or another, for nine years.

“We wanted it to be fun for the whole family,” Fink said. “So, involving the audience helps everyone have a good time.”

Front stage through most of the show is Angela Janssen, who plays Jill. Janssen delivers excitement for the kids with prizes, smiles and jubilant energy for everyone who feels faired-out.

“It's fun being out on the farm while teaching and entertaining the family,” Janssen said. “I hope people will get a chance to come down, take a fair break and check us out.”

“Fe Fi Farm Fun” plays at 1:30, 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. daily at the MTA Creation Station theater located inside the Don Sheldon Building along the Red Trail of the Alaska State Fairgrounds.

Contact J.J. Harrier at 352-2269 or valleylife@frontiersman.com.