Artists eagerly display their Dr. Seuss-inspired artwork. Top left Nicole Hanson, Brigid Hammel, MaryBeth Lauro. Bottom left Julia Nass, Taylor Moore, Rebecca Thirston, and Carlie Richardson./Photo by Todd Newcomer.

by Jules Masterjohn

Those of us born since the mid-1900s have had the great fortune to grow up reading books written by Dr. Seuss. The pages of his classics like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Green Eggs and Ham and Fox in Sox were worn ragged by my constant reading as a child. Like most people, I have never tired of his whimsical drawings and metered poetry. Created through his able hand and inquiring mind, complete worlds filled with original beings inhabiting landscapes equally unique, live on more than 50 years later to remind us of the power that one's imagination can hold. It is no wonder that Needham Elementary School in Durango takes time each year around March 2, Seuss's birthday, to celebrate his life and work. A young friend who attends Needham, Alicia Whiteman, told me that each grade level focuses on a different project "like painting silly creatures." So impressed by Alicia's knowledge of Seuss' life, I decided to do some research of my own.

In 1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel was born to German immigrant parents that settled in Springfield, Mass. As a child, Theodor spent concentrated hours watching the animals at the Forest Park Zoo, where his father was the park commissioner. These early years played an important role in the development of his work: Horton the Elephant comes directly from this experience, and in 1950, he wrote If I Ran the Zoo.

Geisel would partake in many creative endeavors in his 87-year-long life. He worked as an illustrator for many prominent magazines and spent 15 years in advertising with the Standard Oil Co. Throughout his professional career, he continued to create inspired works of art. During the 1930s, he created a body of sculpture, self-titled "Unorthodox Taxidermy." Seuss' imaginative creature heads, mounted like stuffed animal heads, had titles like "Two-horned Drouberhannis," a gazelle-like creature, and "Tufted Gustard," a gentle-looking character resembling a hippo with a daring tuft of coarse hair protruding dramatically from the top of its head.

While serving in WWII, he made instructional films for the Army. This launched his career in motion pictures during which he received an Academy Award in 1947 for "Best Documentary Feature." In 1951, he again received an Academy Award, this time for an animated cartoon, "Gerald McBoing-Boing." His first children's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was published in 1937, and he would write and illustrate 43 more children's books in his lifetime.

Known around the world for his zany writings and wacky characters, Seuss' creative material has inspired playwrights as well. In Durango, opening soon is "Seussical the Musical," a play based on Seuss' work, which after a successful run on Broadway, toured the country for three years. The play was recently released for public use and will be presented by the Durango Arts Force and Durango Lively Arts under the direction of Denise Hagemeister and Wendy Ludgewait. It will showcase the acting and singing talents of 56 area youths.

Taylor Moore, 11, dabbles in the papier mache at the Durango Art Center./Photo by Todd Newcomer.

Known around the world for his zany writings and wacky characters, Seuss' creative material has inspired playwrights as well. In Durango, opening soon is "Seussical the Musical," a play based on Seuss' work, which after a successful run on Broadway, toured the country for three years. The play was recently released for public use and will be presented by the Durango Arts Force and Durango Lively Arts under the direction of Denise Hagemeister and Wendy Ludgewait. It will showcase the acting and singing talents of 56 area youths.

Backstage at the Durango Arts Center, local artists and young art students have joined in the fun, creating the quirky stage sets for the play. Sandra Butler and Michael Brieger, each of whose creative work weaves so fabulously with a project of this nature, will transform the stage into a Seussian wonderland, complete with Butler's version of the Truffula tree. She decided against using the donated cardboard carpet rolls as the tree trunks, knowing that "there are no straight lines in Seuss' environments." Her fanciful and wiggly trees are made of chicken wire and textured white paper topped with green pom-poms. Clearly inspired by Seuss's botanical forms, Butler's trees are a perfect compliment to Brieger's large, painted backdrop for the play's Circus McGurkus scene. Using his weird-and-wonderful sensibility, Brieger has painted a fellow with a nose trumpet, a monkey on top of a four-legged beast and a bird with a pouch with a smaller bird peeking out. Brieger spent a bit of time looking through Seuss books to get a more detailed sense of his work before starting the backdrop and says this project has "helped me to see how limited by my own imagination is."

Seven young artists are also plumbing their creativity to help out with the props for the play by making their own unique Seussian fish sculptures out of papier mache'. Butler teaches the sculpture component of the G.O.A.L. for Girls program, which these girls attend, and on a recent Saturday morning I witnessed some of the silliness in the making of "Seussical."

Amidst a hive-like environment buzzing with activity, the G.O.A.L. artists were hard at work and play on their fanciful fish. MaryBeth Lauro "likes salamanders" so she is creating a "Scamander" which is a cross between a fish and a salamander.

"The hardest thing is stapling the roofing paper together and stuffing it with newspaper. The most fun part is the papier mache' because I can get all gooky," MaryBeth confesses as she wipes her hands on her quite encrusted pants. Her friend Brigid Hammel is making a "Seushifish" combining Seuss and sushi to make a play on words." The ever-favorite creature, the star-bellied Sneetch, makes an appearance in Nicole Hanson's aquatic version, "Star-bellied Sneetchfish." Julia Nass attentively works on her soon-to-be purple and green "Turtlefish" as she stops to tell me that she loves turtles. Rebecca Thurston, also an actor in the play, is making a herring 0 colored in blue, silver, purple and black to match her costume. In the play, she is a member of Dr. Derring's School of Herrings. Asked if there is a particular part of the play that she likes, she responds, "No, the whole thing is amazing!"

Performances of "Seussical the Musical" will be held at the Durango Arts Center on Feb. 24-26 and March 3-5. Tickets available at DAC. For more information call 259-2606. For more information about Dr. Seuss, go to the website www.catinthehat.org.