Performing Arts
Araboolies Go from 'Liberty Street' to the Stage
Enlarge The playful Araboolies indulge in a lively game of "Remote Tickle" during a dress rehearsal for the stage adaptation of Sam Swope's children's book, The Araboolies of Liberty Street.
The production, which premieres at Imagination Stage in Bethesda, Md., on June 30, features colorful costumes and sets, and plenty of acrobatics.
Mrs. Pinch (Gia Mora) terrorizes Simon (Timothy Dale Lewis), a boy who lives on Liberty Street.
Felicia Curry, who plays one of the irrepressible Araboolies, says the beauty of Swope's story is that it conveys the message that people who are "different" are equally as special as anybody else.
All Things Considered, June 29, 2007 · In his 1989 book The Araboolies of Liberty Street, children's author Sam Swope introduced readers to the tyrannical General Pinch and Mrs. Pinch, and their "enemies," the fun-loving and free-wheeling Araboolies.
A new musical based on the book debuts Saturday at Imagination Stage, a children's theater in suburban Washington, D.C.
Swope and composer Kim Sherman worked together to transform the 32-page, wildly illustrated book into a colorful 75-minute, acrobatic musical.
"What we've done is to inflate the book, expand it like a Macy's Day balloon on Thanksgiving," Swope tells Melissa Block.
In the story, the Pinches smile "nasty smiles" and quash any signs of merriment on Liberty Street with bellows of "I'll call in the army!" — that is, until the Araboolies arrive.
The newcomers' skin changes colors. They glow in the dark, paint their home with red and white zigzags, sleep outside, and they even have pets — anteaters and "popaloks" among them. They dare to be different, and they dare to have fun.
Despite the fanciful language and illustrations, Swope's book has run into trouble. Critics have labeled it "anti-military," since the villains are the general and his wife. Some schools have banned it.
Swope remembers hearing from a teacher in New Jersey shortly after the current war in Iraq began. She said her school's superintendent canceled a production of a play based on the book because he thought the book was anti-military and pro-Arab — because of its title.
But the book was written before the first Gulf War, and Swope says "Araboolies" was "just a name."
Instead, Swope says his book is an anti-fascist parable.
"Children have so little power in life that they envy power, and they imitate powerful characters," Swope says.
But because their lives are so controlled and restrained, the author says, children "love mayhem and anarchy and the chance to live without rules because they live with rules so much of the time."
His story also celebrates the beauty of individuality and difference.
"Children are so afraid of being singled out and made fun of," Swope says. "And everyone, young or old, does feel like they have weirdo tendencies within them and they don't want anybody to find out. And so to want to be a weirdo becomes the climax of the play. When the children decide, 'Yes! I want to be a weirdo,' it's a happy moment," he says.
Excerpts: 'The Araboolies of Liberty Street'
Peek inside Sam Swope's book The Araboolies of Liberty Street.
Once there was a street called Liberty Street, and Liberty Street was lined with white houses that were so much alike it was difficult to tell one from another. This was just the way fat General Pinch and his skinny wife liked it.
The Pinches spied on their neighbors all day long. They had nothing better to do. They hated anything that looked like fun. They got upset when Joy hung upside down from a maple tree. They got angry when Katie crept around like a tiger. They got furious when Jack spun around until he felt dizzy. And whenever the Pinches got upset, or angry, or furious, the General would grab his bullhorn and shout "I'll call in the army!" and the fun would have to stop, right then and there.
When summer came, the Pinches ordered the children to stay inside.
Then one day the Araboolies came to Liberty Street and moved in next door to the Pinches. They gave the General and his wife a lot to look at.
For one thing, there were dozens and dozens of them: children and moms and dads and aunts and uncles and grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-great-grandparents. For another, the Araboolies had pets. They had anteaters and porcupines. Elephants, walruses and sloths. They even had a wok, a few popaloks and a wild barumpuss!
Mrs. Pinch sucked in both cheeks. "Disgusting!" she hissed.
"I'll call in the army!" boomed the General.
Some of the children colored the houses and pasted animal cut-outs in the windows. Others decorated the trees and painted the sidewalks. They put toys everywhere and dragged furniture outside. They worked all night long. The last thing they did was to paint one another's faces.
The Araboolies snored through it all.
It was almost dawn when they were finished. Liberty Street had never looked wilder or more colorful, and the children were very proud.
Excerpts from THE ARABOOLIES OF LIBERTY STREET by Sam Swope, pictures by Barry Root. Text copyright (c) 1989 by Sam Swope. Pictures copyright (c) 1989 by Barry Root. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved. www.fsgkidsbooks.com.
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