'Hansel and Gretel' at Dallas Children's Theater

Here, the children get lost in the woods while searching for berries for their loving parents.
They still have to confront the wicked witch who plans to eat them. But B. Wolf's script cuts the threat with humor. And the preschoolers at the Dallas Children's Theater did seem to laugh as much as they gasped, particularly when she got baked into a gingerbread cookie in the final scene.
Family is a theme that Kathy Burks' company understands. Created 37 years ago by Burks and puppeteered by her children Douglass Burks, Becky Burks Keenan, their cousin Sally Fiorello and a handful of others, the company infuses the action with feeling. Times may be difficult, they seem to say as they depict the scarcity of food in the tiny cottage. And it is frightening when parents and children are separated. But if the children stick together and keep the faith that their parents will never stop searching for them, it will all be all right in the end.
The music by 19th century composer Engelbert Humperdinck adds to that reverential, if at times playful, mood.
The company creates many of its impressive, old-fashioned puppets, including the German-style Hansel and Gretel. Puppet aficionados will enjoy a scene where the Sandman and a chorus of angels soothe the children to sleep with song in the darkening woods. These exquisitely crafted creations date back to the 1930s. The black-robed puppeteers stand invisible on the darkened stage at the DCT's smaller studio theater, and children oohed as an expansive forest came to life with squirrels clambering, birds and butterflies flying and those elegant angels descending.
But the witch, with her green, lined face had her fans, too – with one three-year-old professing "I love you" at the meet and greet that followed the show. Just wait till that kid sees Wicked.