Performing Arts School presents classic cartoons

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Time to flash back to a childhood of Saturday morning cartoons, spooky spirits running amok and munching on Scooby Snacks.

The Regional Theatre of the Palouse (RTOP) will showcase their production of “Scooby-Doo and the Abandoned Mansion” on Saturday. The show features talent from RTOP’s Performing Arts School.

RTOP’s Performing Arts School holds fall, winter and spring workshops, each one about six to eight weeks long. Acting as a training ground for artists of all ages, the workshops have included actors from as young as eight to as old as 30-years-old, show co-director Michael Todd said.

“They’re able to come experience a musical for the first time or working onstage for the first time,” he said.

Seasoned performers will sometimes visit the workshops to help first-timers learn the ropes. Beyond the acting component, Todd said he experiences what it’s like to be a director. The workshops also teach the technical aspects of theater, such as lighting, set design, costume and makeup.

The workshops act as a training ground to enhance RTOP’s main stage productions, giving confidence to potential new actors and crew members, Todd said. Here, people can have a creative space to grow and feel prepared for their next audition, at RTOP or otherwise.

“One of our performers … Jasper, he’s also the costume designer,” Todd said. “I thank him so much for his creative eye in the costuming, because he really nailed the … style, color palette (and) wigs.”

“Scooby-Doo and the Abandoned Mansion” is an RTOP original, written in-house and based on the classic cartoon. In order to capture the essence of the classic Scooby-Doo, Todd said he wrote the script in a way that recreates the characters, complete with built-in puns.

The show reflects the format of a typical Scooby-Doo mystery: the gang is on their way to have Thanksgiving dinner when they encounter a little accident. As they are trying to get back on the road, they stumble across a series of strange events they need to solve, Todd said.

Todd said he had the vision of making the show reminiscent of a Saturday morning cartoon. The theme song opens the show and music plays in the background of the chase scenes. The intermission is treated like a commercial break, with some of the action and dialogue from the previous act repeating in the second half.

“Subtle things like that to stay true to the cartoon and give the audience that feel was placed in the script and put onstage,” Todd said. “It’s subtle but effective.”

Research for the cast and crew involved watching the old Scooby-Doo cartoons and studying how the characters stood and moved, utilizing many different elements so the audience doesn’t have to stretch to see Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby onstage.

Originally, the idea was for Scooby-Doo to meet the Addams Family. The set itself reuses props and scenery from RTOP’s production of “The Addams Family” from earlier this month. But the show still includes the classic Scooby-Doo gags like Velma losing her glasses and Scooby getting a Scooby Snack.

Alyssa Dalbeck, who plays Velma, said she finds it a little intimidating to play such a classic character. She has tried to strike a balance between the Velma everyone knows and loves and a new one the audience can enjoy.

Todd said working the show has been exhausting and invigorating at the same time. It’s inspiring to see someone grasp a new concept, and he grows as an artist by having to teach it.

“Performing arts is so collaborative,” Todd said. “There’s the actors, the lighting, the costuming and it’s all melding together.”

“Scooby-Doo and the Abandoned Mansion” will show at 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday at RTOP in downtown Pullman. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under.