In the past three years, I’ve had the honor of being able to try the challenge of script writing for theater works designed for young audiences.
It’s stage storytelling, and it takes imagination and a shifted slant to create a narrative with appeal for both young minds and parents’ attention, too.
After all, it’s the parents or an adult paying for the $10 tickets to see the performance.
In May 2023, The Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster let me pen “Not YOUR Grandma’s Little Red Riding Hood,” and it drew audiences of all ages. In December 2023, I dreamed up “The Year Santa Went on a Diet,” followed by “Dickens’ Christmas Carol for KIDS” in December 2024 and then “Modern Mother Goose” last year for May 2025.
It becomes a theatrical script formula of zany but relatable characters on an adventurous journey seasoned with a few educational lessons, humor and exaggeration throughout.
This week, my fifth work is unveiled, set in a fictional area of the Florida Everglades swamp where a fortune teller and her scheming alligator, along with a fork-tongued, gossiping, 20-foot-long purple Burmese python, form the villainous trio (ironically) helping young audiences learn about life’s dos and don’ts.
And once again, it’s a new stage story produced by non-profit Theatre at the Center, having a world premiere at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts at 1040 Ridge Road in Munster.
Titled “The Frog Prince and the Princess: A Hoppy Tale,” this live performance with both humans and puppets is a 55-minute adventure I’ve both written and directed, along with the stage set décor.
It is a new, fun, updated stage adaptation of “The Frog Prince,” an original work written and published by The Brothers Grimm in 1812 in Germany. The new storybook “from page to stage” telling is for families and audiences of all ages, with 11 performances all this week at 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. through Saturday, May 23, 2026, at Theatre at the Center at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road in Munster. Tickets are $10 and available by calling 219-836-3255 or at www.TheatreAtTheCenter.com.
I made sure the script included fun local references, such as a silly nod to Phil Smidt’s and Sons.
Of course, Phil Smidt’s and Sons was a restaurant in Whiting, famed for a signature featured menu which included buttered and sautéed frog legs. The restaurant closed in 2007 after 97 years in operation.
The plot of “The Frog Prince and the Princess: A Hoppy Tale” concerns Princess Adrianna’s educational and entertaining adventure as she searches for Prince David on a quest through a swampy and mysterious kingdom. She is unaware her princely pal is now a croaking yet crafty frog after being transformed by the infamous marsh magical fortune teller, the Mistress Carara, assisted by Nero, her web-footed and always hungry helper pet alligator. Fortunately, Queen Mum Buscia and her faithful lop-eared royal subject Benny the Beagle can guide the Princess to a mythical fountain for a sunny and enlightening finale.
I like to draw from the fairytales I was read while I was growing up and the vivid and clever cartoons I remember watching during my own youth. It’s a special feeling to be able to invent characters and have them come to life. Sometimes, it’s the characters who like to cause trouble that can be the most fun to invent. I credit as my mentors and inspiration Jim Henson and his Muppets, the era of Saturday morning cartoons and a dash of Walt Disney influence.
Mr. Disney said it best: “If you can dream it, you can do it!”
This play also includes a fond nod to live-action children’s show innovators, the late brothers Sid and Marty Krofft, who created TV series like “H.R. Pufnstuf,” “Land of the Lost” and “Lidsville.” Sid Krofft just died last month, on April 10 at age 96, and his brother Marty died in November 2023 at age 86.
The Krofft Brothers were fans of casting some of the strangest and most offbeat talents in showbiz during the 1970s, such as Mama Cass Elliott, Martha Raye, Charles Nelson Reilly, Billie Hayes (Witchie Poo!), Billy Barty, Margaret Hamilton (of Wicked Witch of the West fame) and Rip Taylor, to name a few. This sibling duo loved animated household objects and landscapes, sea monsters, dinosaurs and magical themes.
In casting my own plays for young audiences, I too like to cast an odd lot of sorts, which I view as a badge of honor to them, since I too fit in as a member of this Island of Misfit Toys population.
This cast features Dave Innes of Hammond as The Frog Prince and in real life an over-the-flat-top referee for independent wrestling organization ARWPRO; Purdue Northwest college cheerleader-turned-WJOB radio producer Adrianna Alvarez as The Princess, also of Hammond; the return of Carolyn Kruszynski of Whiting as Queen Buscia Mum and a member of Whiting’s Pierogi Fest Buscia Brigade; Tony Panek, of East Chicago, as Benny the Beagle, who is also Whiting’s Mr. Pierogi; and Tina Stasny of Whiting as fortune teller Mistress Carara, who is handy with a needle, be it voodoo or seamstress and Chicagoland theater costume work.
I have a cameo appearance in the show as Nero the alligator, and provide puppeteer engineering and vocal talents as supporting characters Hector the Owl and Priscila the Python.
During the course of the adventure, audiences participate in a frog jumping race in the theater aisles without ever having to leave their seats and receive a golden wishing coin to toss into the beautiful fountain of floating swans. Favorite scenes include the magical transformation of a crowned prince into a frog and back to his royal princely status while surrounded by a magical, strange and fascinating stage landscape where guests witness giant glowing mushrooms and mystical fog swirling a full-size row boat.
“The Frog Prince and the Princess: A Hoppy Tale” received generous financial support from the John W. Anderson Foundation.
Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and radio show host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@gmail.com.
