Imaginations run wild with Harold and his crayon

Think back to when you were young, when your imagination was all you had. It shipped your mind to many magical and wondrous places where you could be anyone or anything you wanted.

Through a melange of puppetry, dance, masks, pantomime, magic and original music by Charles Gilbert, The Enchantment Theatre Company brought the audience at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on an enchanting journey on Sunday. The company performed "The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon," an adored series of picture books by Crockett Johnson. After the performance, people could purchase the book for $4.

With no moon hanging in the sky, Harold draws one with his giant purple crayon, which leads him on a voyage into the endless possibilities of space. As invention and curiosity guide him, he explores the dark world of mystery and excitement, learning to take risks and conquer his fears.

The audience follows Harold on his quest to Mars where he encounters a great purple monster. The audience then follows Harold to a circus of magic and clowns, a charming garden and a castle of strange corridors. After his many adventures, he draws his way back home into the comfort of his own bed.

Many children enjoyed the various scenes, shouting throughout the show. They repeated the alphabet along with Harold as he pulled out letters from a giant red book, assigning each one to an object. "L" was for lightening. "M" was for moon, and so forth.

"I liked the circus part," said audience member Isaiah Lovell.

Ashkon and Kaveeyawn expressed that they were a bit too old to like the show but said the animation was good.

"The use of multimedia was peculiar. It was a little more animated in comparison to other shows and the change of music was advanced," Kaveeyawn's mother, Zora, said.

"It was cute like the part when the witch came out," said David Bonilla, an usher at the show and a 3rd-semester molecular cell biology major. Having read the book, he stated that the performance derived almost verbatim from the book.

For the adults and children that attended, "The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon" gave an opportunity to escape into Harold's creative universe, unveiling the incredible power of imagination and the excitement of traveling into the unknown. As Anatole France once said:

"To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all."