At PaintBox Theatre, you don't just get to see a show, you get to BE the show.

​"We've been huge fans since my eldest was old enough to attend a PaintBox production. Now both my kids (and whole family!) are hooked and wouldn't miss a show. Love how PaintBox plays don't only capture my kids' attention but their imaginations, encourage literacy and inspire their own creativity. They're thrilled at the prospect of having their original artwork be part of the shows or even being asked to participate. Glad to support this local gem!"                                                                                                                                                                                                         Erica A                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Click Here and See PaintBox in Action.

​Origins

                 In the  mid nineteen eighties, Tom McCabe formed a theatre company which became known as The Children’s Theatre of Massachusetts. By decade’s end, the theatre had become the most popular professional family theatre in New England. More than fifty thousand children, teachers and parents attended productions yearly; school touring programs reached another sixty to seventy thousand. Due to Tom’s insistence that the tickets be reasonably priced (inexpensive), and in spite of fundraising and sponsorships, the theatre ran a deficit. 
              The productions were outstanding (see pictures). In its last two years, the New England Theatre Conference presented the theatre with The Best Children’s Theatre Production in New England. 
              However, the deficit continued to grow; in the fall of 1989 the theatre ceased to exist.
              Tom was left with a simple question: is it possible to create a successful, professional family theatre while offering tickets for what it cost to go to the movies?
               It took a while, but thirteen years later he founded PaintBox Theatre.

"To Thomas of course!!!! He has contributed to the Valley and the kids of Western Mass for many years. Began by bringing my daughter to his shows at Mt. Holyoke, and am now bringing my granddaughters! A lifetime commitment from Tom has enhanced our lives and our special family times together! Thank you, Thomas. "                                                                                                                                              ~ Jude McGowan​

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​Why We Are ​Called PaintBox

A partial solution to Tom’s conundrum began to develop when he saw a pencil drawing by a four year old. The drawing was taped to the wall of a friend’s office. This drawing was rather odd-- instead of the usual stick figures, the paper was covered in pencil lines. 
    It was the drawing of a pirate. You could make out a cutlas, an eye patch and a pirate hat. Tom happens to be a fan of the artist Cy Twombly, a man who has taken great effort to draw like a child. Tom realized that if this pirate picture were mounted, framed and hung in the Museum of Modern Art, no one would challenge it. Hmmmm.

“And my personal favorite, Tom McCabe's PaintBox Theatre in Northampton, performs eye-popping deconstructions of  favorite stories employing just three actors and constant audience participation.”                                                                                                                                         ~ Chris Rohmann, WFCR
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​Children's Art

             Theatres expend a great deal on scenery. Instead, what if children were offered the opportunity to draw/paint pictures which represent a story's locales? In fact, why not have them create pictures of props and costumes? These images could be projected on a screen over the stage throughout each performance and completely replace the need for scenery.     
             First Tom decided to ask local art classes to create them, but the pictures all came out somewhat the same. He decided the theatre’s audience would be the artists; children from the ages of four to eleven would create them. The variety of artists meant that the pictures had little or nothing in common. The mediums, the color, the style…. Each picture was unique, giving us all a hint as to how that child saw their world.
​             Scenery was replaced by pieces of paper and photos.
             The theatre took the name PaintBox.

“Rather than presenting an established fantasy to the audience, they invite the audience to create it right along with them. Productions feature plenty of audience participation. Sound effects, narration, a song, and even a few characters will be in the hands and voices of the viewers.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                ~ Hampshire Gazette
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​The Screen

             The dad of the initial artist saw our first production and said, “I think you are making one mistake. That screen can never be empty.” We had projected 30 pictures, each just once and, in between the projections, we left the screen blank. 
             We increased the number of pictures, left each up longer, and repeated pictures whenever the locale or object appeared again. 
              The screen was still blank quite a bit of the time.What could go up on the screen in between the pictures? It turns out a whole world of possibilities stood before us.
              What else?
              We could add printed messages. Problem -- some of our audience members are too young to read and we don’t want to exclude them. So, we created a rule. If a message appears printed in yellow, the entire audience had to read it out loud, making the audience a sort of narrator.
              What if we want them all to do something? New rule: Whenever a message is in red, the audience has to what they are told. If the red message says, “Roar like a Lion,” you roar like a lion. The readers were told to clue in the non-readers. So, if it’s yellow you….. Read Yellow Words Out Loud. If it’s in red just do what you're told.  Shake in Fear.
              Soon other messages appeared in white lettering. Readers were encouraged to share the info with the non-readers. These messages included riddles, arithmetic, word problems, jokes and such.     
             Many of the printed messages focused on literacy. A favorite had to do with adjectives. Each child entering the theatre would be asked share a word that describes a particular character (The wolf, little read and/or Little Red, an adjective. 
             When it comes time for one of the cast to play one of the characters, the adjective list appears and the actor tells the audience which three adjectives they were going to base their character on.
              All sorts of ideas popped up. A favorite was the local librarian. Whenever a character needed to know something, he or she could “call” a librarian. The librarian would appear on the screen (pre-recorded with gaps for dialogue) and the character could ask for help.     
              The ideas never stopped. We took black and white photos of characters making faces and then tried to figure out how they were really feeling inside. 
               Now, in almost every show we have the worst most primitive animation which is done by someone in the company or all of us. The audience groans, sometimes boos, then applauds wildly. 

"I believe in supporting the arts as a vehicle for education. PaintBox is the perfect example that art can be education, education can be fun, and fun is for everyone!"                                                                                                                                                 ~Alisha Billias​

​
​Just
3
​Actors

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The second piece of the solution came when we considered actors. Up until then Tom had cast each part of a play with a different actor. This could be expensive. 
             Tom began to wonder - what was the minimum number of actors you need for a show? Two maybe? Two would work but three would be better. Three actors meant two could agree and the third comes along to break things up. It seemed like a right choice. After all  most everything in folk and fairy tales comes in threes: three bears, three pigs, three billy goats. 
             So, what if we went with three?
             Well, folk tales and fairy tales often have lots of characters. Hmmmm. The really small parts could be given to the audience - arrive at the theatre early and we’d give you a part, then sit in the audience in your costume and when the time comes we’ll come get you. That works.
             What about the bigger characters? The three actors would have to switch back and forth.  As we experimented with this something interesting happened. The actors choosing who would play what part became a part of the show. Consequently the scripts got shorter as much of the show wasn’t about the story so much as it was about how we tell the story. 
              Something else happened. As we tried to work things out, rehearsals began to resemble children at play. Everyone had to give and take, compromise, listen and share. Unstructured play became a hallmark of the theatre. More and more, the way we told it was up in the air. Improvisation popped up everywhere. Actors switched roles but now more than one actor might play a role - any role, all the roles. If you wanted to be the king or the queen so be it. If you wanted to be the kid in the story, that was fine, as long as you were willing to let someone else play it as well. In recognition of this, Tom created a version of the Ugly Duckling in which over the course of nine scenes, each of the three actors performed all of the nine characters. What fun.
              We were surprised by the results. Parents would stop to tell us that after the last show their child had gone home, got some folks to help and “played” the story, re-staging the play they had just seen following the behaviors of unstructured play.  
​              Turns out it’s more fun if you have only three actors.

“On My Summer Wish List – “See all three PaintBox Theatre shows. While you're at it, whoop it up on PaintBox’s behalf and invite the masses.” 
                                                                                                                                                                                                    ~ Sara Buttenweiser, Parent
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Audience Participation

             From the very beginning, getting the audience into the act was a given. In every performance there were already at least a dozen things (not including the yellow messages) for the audience to do (dancing, singing, acting like animals). Now the activities grew more complex. We began dividing the audience into sections and doing  activities in which the sections  played off each other.
            We went further. For example, during the intermission of Raggedy Ann, the entire audience had to go outside and join a search for the kite Raggedy Ann had flown off in, as without it we couldn’t have a second act. (We found her in a tree nearby.) 
             Characters began leaving messages for other characters with the audience. We went so far as to have the entire audience play one of the lead characters. In the Billy Goats Gruff, the audience, through use of the yellow messages for dialogue, played the second Billy Goat. In The Three Pigs, the audience got to play the Big Bad Wolf. Why? Because we thought it would be fun for the audience to experience what feeling fierce was like.
    We had just a little more to go. We were approaching the point where the audience would take over the show. 
              Up until then, we had always done stories with well known titles. (Known titles boost ticket sales.) These old stories almost always have wildly unsavory elements. In the past, in the adaptation, we had changed things and cleaned all that up. What if we didn’t? What if we left it to the audience to fix things?
              In The Billy Goats Gruff, at pretty much the end of the show, the oldest Billy Goat says, “It’s time to go down to that bridge and throw that Troll out!” (NOTE: Our troll was a goofy teen ager who loved bridges. It’s a troll thing.) The adaptation ends there; it ends with just three dots ...
              The oldest was told to hit the “throwing out part” hard. The oldest stood still and it happened. A child in the audience quietly said just one word, “No.” 
              “Why?” The oldest demanded. What he heard were the magic words, “It’s not fair.” Now we have it. The golden value, common to every child - fairness. The other actor (not the Troll) jumped in and began gathering the opinions of the children, while the oldest argued. Children were on their feet. They would not have it. They would rather stop the play, a play they had been enjoying, than to have the Troll hurt. 
                 After a bit of discussion, the children agreed on the notion that you don’t have to love everyone but that doesn’t give you permission to be mean and hurtful.
                 The ending? The troll and the goats all play out a fantasy of an “old west gunfight” (High Noon) with the children stopping it. In the end the Troll and the Oldest Billy Goat shake hands.
                  The audience had made things right. Wow!

While an audience member at 2017's "Wizard of Oz," I was thrilled to see how kids were encouraged to play along with the show! Not one "shush" was heard! PaintBox audiences are active participants, never bored, enjoying spinning as tornados or blooming as poppies. ~Emily Bloch
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School
​Programming​

                 Write Now!

For 40 years Tom McCabe has toured the country presenting school-based education programs to elementary school children and their teachers, seeing more than a million children. Today, he focuses nearly all of his energy on the schools close to home. He calls his program “Write Now!” Over the years he has developed techniques and activities that truly help children with their writing. His work is known to motivate the most reluctant students and he has a passion for working with the most challenged schools. Currently he is planning four artist-in-residence programs in the Holyoke school system. Tom presents these programs as an extension of PaintBox Theatre.

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Out & Abouts 

POP -UPS
All of our rehearsals are open to the public - PaintBox Policy. However, we don’t devote any particular energy to marketing this fact. Instead, every so often, we “pop up” (we do get permission) in a park, a recreation area or some public space. Folks are invited to gather round and we begin to work on the show - performing bits and pieces. During breaks we consult with the children in the crowd about the scene - what worked, what didn’t, and in most cases incorporate their suggestions into the show.​

​​“This is the absolute best show I have ever been to. When can we come back?”
                                                                                ~ A child overheard in the lobby

So You Want To Be a Pirate?

Arghhhh

Much to our delight, we have discovered that pretty much everyone, even adults, secretly wants to be a pirate. Do you? Then keep an eye on the web site. Every summer we put on “The Pirate Festival”, a free event for the whole family including singing, storytelling and a downtown-wide scavenger hunt with a treasure map and stops each pirate has to make along the way. Winners get a bag of gold -- a few golden covered chocolate doubloons.

“The Valley champion at casting the audience is, of course,  PaintBox Theatre, whose twisted fairy tales press kids and  grownups alike into service as onstage extras, sound-effect-makers and choral readers of projected stage directions.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                               ~ The Valley Advocate​​

Coming Soon

​The
Santa
​Show

Shhhh. This is a little secret. Santa Claus is a ham. He is. Tom ran into him somewhere in the mid 1980’s. Santa was fascinated when he learned about the theatre. On the spot Tom offered to create a play starring Santa, to be done a couple of weeks before Christmas. Santa was delighted but he had to clear things with the elves and, most importantly, Mrs. Claus. They agreed and the show is now an annual event. Every year we tell a new story, sing songs and Mrs. Claus reads "The Night Before Christmas. Merry. Merry. Merry.

​The
Box

Mom, Dad and their kid find a picture book in the library about a child imagining a trip into outer space inside a converted cardboard fridge box. The family decides to reenact the book with the kid as astronaut and mom and dad playing all of the other parts.
​

Coming Next Summer

Baby Bear Private Eye - A new take on an old tale.

Pirates! ​We're Back - High Adventure awaits!

Journey to the Center of the Earth - Yup. We're Doing It.

​"Thanks for bringing so much joy to so many kids (and their parents!)." 
​                                                                                              ~ Linda Ziegenbein
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Dear Reader,
You may be wondering. Did we achieve our goal? Did we do it? Does Paintbox have inexpensive tickets? 
             Answer: Yes and No. 
             We definitely did what we set out to do and the results were spectacular. Not only are we coming up on twenty years, but if you read the words of audience members and critics spread throughout this site,  its is clear. PaintBox works.
​However….
              The “NO” part 0f the answer has to do with unforeseen expenses. For the first half of our life we were based on a college campus. We thrived. We broke even our first year. In part it was due to the fact that the college donated the use of the theatre. 
              When we left the college, we had to rent theatre space and pay liability insurance. Rental of the performance space alone costs us between 40 and 50 percent of our box office revenue.
              Below is a picture of a rather odd way we tried to address this problem and a true example of folly. We got donated space in the grandstand of the Three County Fair Grounds actually built a temporary theatre in there. It worked but we had no wheelchair access and a host of other problems. Nevertheless, it was most interesting.     
            We have learned that our theatre is not possible without donations. Why? In order to survive on ticket sale we have to perform in a theatre with a lot of seats. Such theatres are rare out here in the wilds of western Massachusetts and the rental cost for such theatre spaces is dear. 
             We survive on the generosity of plain folks, small businesses and, occasionally on foundations. Soooo, below this letter is a link to donate to PaintBox Theatre. Any sum will be hugely appreciated. Even modest donations help persuade larger foundations and corporate givers that our programs are both  appreciated and supported by our audience.  We promise to spend your money carefully.

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To Make a Tax Deductible Donation to PaintBox Theatre

I'll close with an invitation. Come on out and see a show,  even if you don't have children. I promise you a bundle of joy and laughter and, if you've made a donation, you'll get to see your money in action.

Most sincerely,

Tom McCabe, Artistic Director