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With her 3-year-old son Singer as a major motivator, Jessica Noel is strengthening her robust appreciation for childlike innocence and youthful possibility.
The resident of the 200 block of Manton Street will look to inspire similar gratitude Sunday when she helms an adaptation of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” at the Arts Bank, 601 S. Broad St. The creation will become the fifth production in the two-year existence of her Performance Art Center for Kids but the first since her Jan. 14 acquisition of studio space at 729 S. Fourth St.
“When I choose works, I look for pieces that spoke to me as a child because I like to reach back,” the 30-year-old Pennsport dweller said Friday at her Queen Village facility. “These kids have become completely engrossed and passionate about the projects, which keeps me motivated to help them to love theater.”
Noel is guiding 75 youngsters, most from the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter, 2407 and 2600 S. Broad St., and William M. Meredith, 725 S. Fifth St., schools, through a reworking of C.S. Lewis’ 1950 fantasy book from “The Chronicles of Narnia” series. The latter institution had hosted her club since its inception and staged three shows before she devised a fall partnership with the Hawthorne location that welcomed her crew’s Dec. 15 treatment of “The Polar Express.”
“Friends said I should contact Meredith to see about having an area for instruction,” she said of the elementary spot whose personnel subsequently assisted her in landing the neighboring expanse, where she teaches musical theater and ballet. “I’m grateful because I really want to take my interests and be more encompassing, hence the use of ‘performance’ in our name.”
Noel knew last year that Lewis would serve as her latest literary lion and immediately began to pen a script that leaves out the lauded novel’s Christian allegorical components because of her charges’ diverse backgrounds and uses pop, rock ‘n’ roll and Broadway selections.
“We have a bit of everything, from The Beatles, The Eagles and Florence and the Machine to ‘Godspell,’ ‘Hair,’ ‘Singing in the Rain’ and ‘The Lion King,’” the director, who is calling upon John, her husband of five years, for technical input, said of the 90-minute brainchild, which includes hip-hop and tap numbers. “We’re really looking to give kids a chance to improve their stage presence and are thrilled about this chance.”
The budding talents offered a sneak peek at May 4’s South Street Headhouse District Spring Festival and have come to remind their overseer of the vibrancy she exuded as an ambitious Texas youth who would endow her neighbors with original plays.
“In many ways, I’ve never parted with my childhood,” Noel, who uses “Art reflects life, and life is beautiful” as her motto, said. “That helps to inspire these children because I want to stay super positive and draw them as thespians into the Philadelphia cultural experience, which I consider a playground.”
The bubbly individual started to situate herself in the figurative recreational territory four years ago when her spouse scored a scientific research job at Temple University. Instantly falling for South Philly, she sought to encourage children to be as enthused and confident as she came to be shortly after donning her first ballet slippers at 3.
“Our pediatrician believed the discipline would improve my coordination,” Noel said, adding the specialist also noted it could help her to avoid developing scoliosis on account of her having legs with dissimilar lengths. “I found myself hooked and took on creative dramatics two years later, with great support from my parents enabling me to study throughout my childhood.”
Landing an internship with the Lone Star State’s Amarillo Little Theatre in 2001, she intensified her knowledge of children’s theatrical design, choreography and direction, with adapting and directing “Jack and the Beanstalk,” which her current corps also has acted out, among her accomplishments. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in performance studies from Texas A&M University, where she also tested her acting acumen as Nina in Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” Dance studios also came to rely on her to devise custom curriculum for their musical theater courses, another résumé enhancer upon her South Philly arrival.
“It seems the city was calling me,” the Abilene, Texas native said of her at-large turf, which she admitted to having known little about prior to her move. “I’m glad it has because I love interacting with children as well as those in our adult classes and being able to do what I want when I find a place for us to perform.”
In addition to her soon-to-be quintet of pieces, Noel has worked as a teaching artist for the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership and has acted with Master Builder Productions at Plays & Players Theatre, both Center City entities. Those opportunities couple with her present occupation as studio head to give Noel additional insight into the need for artistic exploration, maturation and proclamation. That she has the task of imparting wisdom to impressionable enrollees, including her offspring, motivates her to be bolder and more daring for her profession.
“It’s easy to stay passionate when you’re around so many spirited people, especially the kids,” Noel, who might come to create summer shows to give the youngsters three annual occasions to grow, said.
As she prepares for Sunday, she is already pondering future presentations, including a “Pippi Longstocking” rendition.
“For me, it’s theater or bust,” Noel said. “I love what this city’s scene has and could come to have for these children.”
For tickets, e-mail jess@phillypack.org.
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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