Stone Soup: A Savory Production

If you ever enjoyed the story of a hungry vagabond uniting a small village over a pot of stone soup, this play is for you.

Alisha Christiansen teaches children in grades 3 through 8. Several years ago, she had written a “Stone Soup” play for her students. But it wasn’t until early summer of this year when the Theatre Department at MHCC was deciding what subject to develop that her mini-play would become a full-fledged production – with a final College Theatre showing at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 15.

Christiansen is a part-time instructor with the Mt. Hood Theatre program. The idea for the Stone Soup play came to her when it was decided that the story of Sisyphus rolling his stone uphill would possibly be the theme. The department needed material for the annual, autumn children’s program as well.

Rolling stone = stone = Stone Soup! Thus the play came about.

The play’s story is of a village of hangry people and their children. Each family has the same soup every night, which the children complain about. One family has potato soup, another family has carrot soup, and so on. The stranger comes to town and through a series of events that include a talking dog and yelling parents, the town finally is tricked into donating ingredients to a pot of soup being cooked in the town square. With their bellies full, the townspeople begin to play music and dance. Joy has come to a previously untrusting and hungry village. 

As the narrators talk, they take the time to define larger terms for the children in the audience. Humor is sprinkled throughout. At the end of the play, a Q-and-A session allowed audience members to ask about the production and what is involved in each development, allowing for the introduction of background technicians to be highlighted.

The significance of the lesson of this age-old tale is not lost on Christiansen: People need community, and community needs people.

It is an important lesson for the young ones watching the play, and perhaps an even more important one for the adults.

Angelique Cervantes