The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 55

3C JTHE ATLANTA CONSTITITION, Oct. 4, 1984 Two theaters present classics for children Cinema honors late art film impresario 1 13 The Emperor and the Nightingale: Presented by the Atlanta Children's Theatre at the Alliance Theatre. Public performances: 2:30 p.m. Saturdays, Oct. 6 and 27, Nov.

10 and 17. School performances are available at 9:45 and 11:15 a.m. Mondays-Fridays through Nov. 17. $3.50 adults.

$3 students. 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. 892-2414. Cinderella: Presented at the Center for Puppetry Arts.

Through Nov. 17. 10 and 11:30 a.m. Mondays-Fridays. 11 a.m.

and 2 p.m. Saturdays. $3. 1404 Spring St. N.W.

873-3089. RICH ADDICKSStatf Clenn Sirkis will open doors of theater to public Friday night made American and foreign films that may not appeal to the shopping center-theater crowd." Ellis, who operated a number of local theaters for nearly 20 years, introduced many Atlantans to the films of directors Ingmar Bergman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Fe-derico Fellini, Francois Truffaut and others, as well as to the midnight cult hit "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." "George is the one who groomed the audience for all of us," said Sirkis. "I continue to be amazed by the number of people who stick their heads in here (the theater) and say nice things about George." The festivities tonight are private. The theater will open to the public Friday night The $250,000 renovation of the boarded-up, run-down building proved to be a two-year project and more time-consuming than Sirkis and Ms. Kirn expected.

"We're not going to have a carpet by Thursday night, but I think we're going to have everything else," he said. With a laugh, Ms. Kirn, 31, compared the project to giving birth. "We incorporated the company just a few days before our wedding IVt years ago," she said. "We have spent that entire lVfc years having our first baby this theater.

It has been a tough labor, let By Linda Sherbert Slttt Wriltr The George Ellis Cinema, named after the beloved Atlanta art film impresario who died last year, will open tonight in a refurbished 1940-vintage movie theater in Little Five Points. For Glenn Sirkis and his wife Jill Kirn, who will run it, opening the theater represents a loving tribute to their old friend. Ellis was well known for cultivating the artier segment of the moviegoing audience in Atlanta and as a theater operator who personally greeted his patrons at the door. "George is the father of the art film in Atlanta," said 35-year-old Sirkis Wednesday as some last-minute hammering was being done at the theater. "Without him, there would be no purpose in reopening this theater." At the time of his death at age 64, Ellis had been discussing the idea of renovating this theater with Sirkis.

The Ellis Cinema, at 1099 Euclid will specialize in art films. "We'll show the same kinds of movies that George used to show, the movies that don't get widespread commercial distribution, with an emphasis on first-run films," said Sirkis. "When I say 'art I mean independently retains its original art deco-style exterior, but has a new marquee, a 50-foot screen (larger than average), up-to-date movie projection equipment and a totally redesigned interior that will seat 310 patrons. The unusual seating arrangement combines regular seats with tables and chairs on multi-level mezzanines. A small bar in back of the theater will provide additional seats from which to watch a movie.

The first film will be "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez," an independently made western (in Spanish and English with subtitles as needed). Tickets cost $3.50. Sirkis is obtaining a license to serve beer and wine. me tell you." At all hours of the night lately, workmen have been trying to meet the opening-night deadline. "The painters spray-painted the ceiling in the theater all night long," said Ms.

Kirn. "The sheet rock people were here all night The people putting the new stucco on the front of the theater worked from 6 p.m. until midnight." The Ellis Cinema opens exactly 44 years after the former Euclid Theatre opened on the same site Oct. 4, 1940. The building was a movie house until 1962; it was later used as a religious revival hall, a storage site for plumbing supplies and a waste dump, Sirkis said.

The renovated brick structure A Review By Panla Crouch Wriltr The mighty Emperor of China knows the importance of forgiveness. A little bird told him. But he wasn't always so wise. It took the drab bird with a glorious song along with a smart little girl and a wise old woman to show him the way to happiness. Such is the gentle lesson of the beautifully staged "The Emperor and -the Nightingale," the fall production of the Atlanta Children's Theatre which opened this week.

Adapted by Sandra Deer, the Alliance's literary manager, and director Kent Stephens from the Hans Christian Andersen classic, the work is presented in Kabuki style, which emphasizes pantomime, dance and song. Because much of the action and props are suggested or represented a chair can become a mountain or a single step can become a journey of a million miles, as the narrator says the children's imaginations come into play. The emperor and his advisers wear the stylized white faces and elaborate costumes of Kabuki. There's plenty of exaggerated face-making and physical humor to please the children, but the work retains a delicate air. Hal Lanier's original Oriental-flavored music, played by percussionist Scott Douglas and flutist Teresa Texiera, is filled with haunting melodies and urgent rhythms.

The set, the facade of a palace with pagoda roof, is simple and beautiful. At stage left, where the musicians play in full view of the audience, is a fascinating mix of instruments, many of them ancient Chinese. The acting is uniformly strong, with Teri Lynn Brown as the little girl, Lizan Mitchell as the grandmothernarrator and Ken Strong as the emperor in the lead roles. The emperor's bumbling trio of advisors a sort of Oriental Three Stooges are delightful. John Ammerman plays the logician; John Ferguson, the historian; and Dennis Durrett-Smith, the music master.

This is a fine production, highly Festival's 'Arms' is a glorious performance Another beloved classic, "Cinderella," adapted for the puppet stage by Mitchell Edmonds and Vincent Anthony, opened the Center for Puppetry Arts' season this week. Directed by Luis Q. Barroso, it is presented in the classic marionette style, using primarily string puppets, although shadow and rod puppets are also employed. The red, blue and gold Victorian storybook puppet theater features a curtain that raises and lowers as scenes are changed: from Cinderella's attic room to her stepmother's drawing room to the Prince's palace. An "orchestra" of musicians painted on the front of the stage plays lovely classical music as instruments move mechanically in their hands.

The lighting effects give the work a magical aura that elicits appreciative oohs and ahhs from the pint-sized audience members. The jewellike lights on the carriage that takes Cinderella to the ball are a special eye-pleaser. The tale is told by a mouse named Pierre who loves playing tricks on Cinderella's vain stepsisters, Dun-derella and Jealousina, and her stepmother who is more Idiotic than evil. When Pierre crawls under a broom and makes it dance ghostlike around the room to scare the sisters, the kids squeal with delight. The puppets themselves are beautifully designed and come magically to life in the skilled hands of puppeteers Jon Ludwig, Peter Hart and Ann Peterle Taylor.

After the show, the puppeteers come out to share with the children a "behind-the-scenes" look at how the play is staged. A Rpview By Paula Crouch Staff Wriltr For those who don't make it to the Shakespeare Festival in the Festival has gone on tour each fall since 1978. This year audiences in 26 cities in seven eastern states will be treated to oirMv anrt olnrinna nprfnrmanops nf Main Madison. 1-342-4743. Cobb County Civic Center, 8 p.m.

Oct. 12 (followed by a "Meet the Cast" gala); 2 and 8 p.m. Oct. 13. Tickets, $10 adults, $6 students, $7.50 gala.

Clay and Fairground streets, Marietta. 427-2689 or 427-4666. Agnes Scott College, 8:15 p.m. Oct. 19.

Tickets, $6 general, $3 students. Presser Hall, East College Avenue. Decatur. 373-2571. Other Georgia performances will be at Russell Auditorium on the campus of Georgia College in Milledgeville Oct.

9. (1-912-452-3950); Fine Arts Auditorium at the University of Georgia in Athens Oct. 10 (1-542-8514); and Rome City Auditorium in Rome 1 George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man." An appreciative hometown audience showed up as the zig-zagging tour was launched Sept. 7 in Anniston. The tour swings into theatrical but not beyond the understanding of children.

In fact, the theatrics blended with the simple story for a play that will appeal to all ages. ueorgia tnis week witn a stop in Madison Saturday and makes its 'way to Athens, Rome, Milledgeville, artistic director. The story revolves around a pragmatic Swiss mercenary (Donadio) who would rather stuff his gun-belt with chocolate than bullets and for whom feminine arms are far more appealing than the military kind. Running from the enemy in the midst of an obscure Balkan war, he bursts through the second-story window of a young Bulgarian woman's bedroom. The woman, Raina (Ms.

Eubanks)? the daughter of a wealthy and pompous Major Petkoff (Cover), is swooning over her true love, the dashing Sergius (Browning), who has just led a daring if not stupid attack. Yet, intrigued by the romance of it all, Rama, in cahoots with her mother (Ms. Leighton), agrees to hide the handsome, cynical mercenary to whom she feeds chocolate creams to assuage his hunger. In the twists and turns of the next two acts and, to a great extent, through the wiles of the maid Louka (Ms. Case) who is reluctantly engaged to the manservant Nicola (Brown) true love bumps along its rugged course.

The cast is uniformly excellent and provides us with laugh after laugh as deception piles on deception and vainglorious pretensions are shot down. Whether you're a regular theatergoer or have never seen a play in your life, you are sure to be enchanted by Shaw's brilliant comedy and social satire. AUTOGRAPHING MB NFWRhDK "THFRF'S NOTHING NFATARDI ITRFFING Yffl IR FFFT THFIIFFfi TIMFRGFA FAT AMFRICAN" inn irrn i iivirn urnrni Hivirnn TT- JiUDLOW PORCH maneua ana vecaiur aunng me 'month of October. The production maintains the same high standards as the ASF production of the play during the -regular summer season of 1983. The play is a witty lampoon of Victorian military heroism that ranks reckless bravado over strategic planning.

It also pokes good-natured fun at incurable romantics, class distinctions and pretensions of the social ladder-climbers of the day. Shaw does not simply write funny plays with clever lines there is much wisdom behind the wit. Susan Rheaume's costumes are colorful and well-designed as is Mark Morton's set: an upper-class mansion in turn-of-the-century garia with snow-capped mountains visible through the windows. It has been scaled down to fit the various houses the show will play, but in the interest of compactness, there's no skimping in quality or eye-appeal. You'll see the same people that I Robert Browning and Evelyn Carol Case in 'Arms and the Man' tred the ASF boards during the regular season.

The partisan opening-night crowd cheered the lively cast of Festival favorites including A.D. Cover, Betty Leighton, Robert Browning, James Donadio, Evelyn Carol Case and Kermit Brown, who recreated their roles from the earlier production. Shannon Eubanks, a former ASF company member, returned from New York to complete the cast. "Arms" is directed by Martin Piatt, ASF Arms and the Man: Presented by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival Tour at three Atlanta-area locations: Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, 8 p.m. Saturday.

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