By Lisa Thibodeau

Sacramento’s historic storybook park Fairytale Town, located in William Land Park, is partnering with NorCal Arts (formerly Northern California School of the Arts), a nonprofit theater arts training program to produce live shows in its indoor 150-person capacity Children’s Theater. 

Under the partnership, which launched in April 2024, the family friendly shows, which are held most Saturdays and Sundays year round, are designed to ignite young (ages 2 and up) imaginations with educational plots addressing issues like environmental awareness and conflict resolution. The productions include child actors from NorCal Arts to further the park’s mission of encouraging creativity and literacy since 1959.

“The quick 25-30 minute plays generally have an audience of about 50-80 kids and adults,” said Sammi Hawes, education and program manager of Fairytale Town. 

The park welcomes approximately 230,000 guests annually. “One of our biggest goals was making sure the shows had child actors so that the kids could see themselves represented and are inspired to get involved in programs,” said Hawes of the programming, which includes original works, folk myths and classic fairy tales. 

A collaboration with NorCal Arts was a natural fit as their work brings plays, music and dance and also conflict resolution programs to over 75 Sacramento schools. 

“We serve a lot of pre-kindergarteners and kindergartners through 6th grade with arts-infused curriculum, and through a grant with [the] City of Sacramento we are pushing out our theater arts and conflict resolution integrated program,” Executive Director for NorCal Arts Michele Hillen-Noufer said . “We use the arts to teach math, science and English in the classroom and as a tool to teach violence prevention,” she said.

NorCal Arts crafts their productions to be teachable moments and culturally relevant with a local focus. Shows like “Little Bird’s Second Chance,” which returns to the Children’s Theater in January, is an original musical chronicling a young bird spreading its wings and branching out into the world while ignoring Mother Bird’s advice. The play models lessons on trust, kindness and the importance of friendship. 

“We had original music by Sacramento composer Robert Broadhurst and it was written by Davis-based award-winning novelist, screenwriter and playwright Dorothea Bonneau,” Hillen-Noufer said.

In “Drip Drop, Hip Hop,” a collaboration with the Regional Water Authority, kids are taken on a journey with Froggy the Water Explorer through the American River Watershed, and are encouraged to save water (plus they are gifted a shower timer!). The play, showing weekends in April of 2025, was funded by a $300,000 grant from Capital Region Creative Corps and California Arts Council, and NorCal Arts has a goal of reaching 400 locations across Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado counties. The play was previously shown  at Crocker Art Museum, SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity, and the Nimbus Fish Hatchery in Sacramento. It will also be performed at the Children’s Theater at Fairytale Town.

Hillen-Noufer, who has a theater background and teaches at Sacramento State, was instrumental in launching the theater and dance credential program that is coming to Sac State in the fall of 2025. 

“I am very [versed] in theater standards and I have a curriculum around these standards. Doing cross-sector work, taking the arts and embracing the idea that it can be used as a tool, to teach water conservation or to teach violence prevention, using arts in the service of humanity to teach life skills and important concepts — I just love that,” Hillen-Noufer said. 

Planting the seeds for arts appreciation, lifelong participation in a meaningful way or perhaps a future career in theater is a shared goal of the partnership. “Getting kids excited about the art form, sharing the magic of theater by bringing them to an intimate setting, like the quaint Fairytale Town theater, opens up their imagination and creates future audience members,” Hillen-Noufer said. 

This story was funded by the City of Sacramento’s Arts and Creative Economy Journalism Grant to Solving Sacramento. Following our journalism code of ethics and protocols, the city had no editorial influence over this story and no city official reviewed this story before it was published. Our partners include California Groundbreakers, Capital Public Radio, Outword, Russian America Media, Sacramento Business Journal, Sacramento News & Review, Sacramento Observer and Univision 19. Sign up for our “Sac Art Pulse” newsletter here.