Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Danny Trooper Write-Up at CompHealth Intranet

Brent Alles puts on production of “Danny Trooper and the Hall of Valhalla”
03 May 2011 | Grand Rapids Allied Health Staffing, Our People

What do you get when you combine students ages 7 to 18, dedicated community members and characters such as Wrex the Wunderdog and Princess Starlight?

Cast members of "Danny Trooper and the Hall of Valhalla" pose for a photo.
If you’re Brent Alles, you get a brand-new production: “Danny Trooper and the Hall of Valhalla.” Brent, a client representative for CompHealth allied health staffing in Grand Rapids, wrote and directed the play, which is being performed May 5-7 at the Lowell Peforming Arts Center in Lowell, Mich.

“This play is actually a sequel to my play ‘Danny Trooper in the Land of ModMyth,’ which was produced two years ago locally here in West Michigan,” Brent explains. “That play examined the idea of ‘modern mythology:’ that is, what ‘mythological’ figures are created by children (and some adults) by what they view on television and film, read in books, etc. In the original play, Danny found a passage into another world where all of the heroic and villainous characters from television, film and literature from the last 100 years reside.”

The Danny Trooper sequel continues the original story, with Danny’s father keeping his promise to take him to Asgard to meet the Norse gods on his thirteenth birthday.

Brent says that this production shows Danny getting older, aging from 11 to 13, and helps kids to understand the adjustments that happen in their relationships with their friends and family and their expectations in society, too.

“I was obsessed with mythology as a child, and I’m still pretty much obsessed with mythology, science fiction and fantasy to this day,” Brent shares. “So ‘Valhalla’ is still about that obsession, I suppose, but it also looks at growing up and what changes to you as that happens.”

While he spends a year writing, revising and rewriting every play he produces, Brent also invests time into auditions, which last two days, and rehearsals over six to seven weeks. He mentions balance as one of the difficulties that come with putting on a production.

“With community theater and working with kids, your challenges, of course, are dealing with all of the other things that kids and adults do besides community theater,” Brent says. “Obviously, we all still have to show up to school or our jobs.”

Despite the long hours required when putting these productions together, Brent finds the process rewarding in many ways.

“It’s always great to see my stories brought to life by actors, but the things I enjoy the most about doing theater for youth are getting kids involved in theater, which I think benefits them in a multitude of ways, [including] presentation skills, self-esteem and self-confidence, and getting kids to come watch theater and hopefully want to see additional shows,” Brent says.