What if the book 'Stuart Little' had been suppressed by a librarian? | Arts & Culture

At first, children’s librarian Anne Carroll Moore encouraged New Yorker magazine writer E.B. White to write a kid’s book. But when she read Stuart Little, all that changed. E.B. White remembered that, “she said something about its having been written by a sick mind.”

Moore, one of the very first American children’s librarians, thought kids would get mixed up by the blurring of reality and fantasy. She was so influential that it did almost doom the book!

The story was so compelling for a tiny theater company that they decided to build a play, Little Book, around the relationship between E.B. White, his wife Katharine, and Moore. The world premiere will be at the Little Theater (Washington Ensemble Theatre’s space at 608 19th E at Roy) from July 14-17.

The for/word company has a special constraint: their dialogue is composed only of the actual writings of the people they are performing about.

Jennifer Schleuter, joint artistic director, says, “Everything is exclusively from their writings.” They might change verbs from past to present tense, or “put words written by E.B. White in Katharine White's mouth, for example,” in order to make the dialogue active. Jennifer adds, “Our work is highly physical, very vibrant, very lived. That's where great acting and directing come in, I think. Our motto is: activate.”

The company has experience developing pieces based solely on the writings of the people they are interested in. Their first piece, North, tells the story of a charged meeting between writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife to aviator Charles, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a man she met once, but who she felt best understood her work.

They performed the work in Chicago, where it was well received.

Jennifer reports that, “our next piece, on Pearl Curran, was triggered by a Smithsonian magazine article. In some ways, we're simply following our curiosities and fascinations--particular topics and people jump out at us as interesting.

“We're actively discussing a variety of other pieces: about William Moulton Marston and Wonder Woman, about Davy Crockett, about the Breton Peasant (you can read more about that one on our website).”

While they’re primarily Ohio-based, they’re developing their work all around the country. Jennifer says, “We got connected via grad school. Several of us got our PhDs at Ohio State.” Jennifer then got a job at the University of Oregon and director John Schmor is from Eugene, Oregon.

Peach Pittenger who plays Anne Carroll Moore is from Seattle. So there are west coast connections at play. Jennifer says, “We're taking it to Seattle because Peach is there.” And another reason Seattle fits is because, “Book-It is a company we very much admire. It seems like Seattle has an audience for this kind of "literary" theater.”

It sounds a little crazy to be working all over the country. So how can they fund this kind of work? Jennifer explains, “We are doing targeted fundraising to support our work. In this case, we are supporting it via our wonderful donors.

“And we have lots of friends in Seattle. Chris Roche is staying with Jerry Manning from Seattle Rep (artistic director), for example. I'm staying with Jana Hutchison, who does a lot of improv in town. And so on. We're small and scrappy.”

Get this on the calendar if you’re interested, since after one weekend, it’s gone.