The Red Thread, an original Chinese fable getting its world premiere at The PlayGround Theatre, is unabashedly children’s fare recognizable by its broadly-sketched plot, a plucky heroine and a few sugar-coated morals.

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For theatergoers unfamiliar with the company, PlayGround was co-founded by Ansin with the idea that children’s theater must have all the artistic rigor as adult theater – just be a lot more joyful for children. For six years, it has created highly imaginative, slickly produced, theatrically sophisticated, multi-cultural works adapted from existing literature and played in rotation like an opera repertoire with a repertory troupe of Equity actors. Besides selling tickets to adults and families, it buses in thousands of schoolchildren for free daytime performances.

The Red Thread, partly underwritten with a $100,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, is PlayGround’s first wholly original piece and it has been developed over three years by Ansin, and chief designer/co-author Fernando Calzadilla.

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