[photo credit: Pasadena Playhouse]
Pasadena Playhouse will tour THE LIZARD & EL SOL, a bilingual, primarily Spanish-language theatre production designed for children from birth to age 5 and their families, to Playhouse Village Park, Loma Alta Park in Altadena, and Victory Park from April 4 through May 3. All 20 performances are free. The show runs approximately 20 to 25 minutes and includes live music, interactive elements, and pre-show and post-show arts and crafts activities, according to the Playhouse.
The production is adapted from Alma Flor Ada’s children’s book The Lizard and the Sun / La Lagartija y el Sol, a retelling of an ancient Mexican folktale set in Tenochtitlán. Ada, a Cuban-American author and Professor Emerita at the University of San Francisco, has written more than 200 children’s books. The book, illustrated by Felipe Dávalos and translated into English by Rosalma Zubizarreta, won a Gold Medal in the Folklore category from the National Parenting Publications Association.
THE LIZARD & EL SOL was originally developed and produced by the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, one of the country’s leading regional theaters and itself a recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award. The Alliance created the production for its Bernhardt Theatre for the Very Young, a programming strand specifically designed for audiences ages 0–5 and their caregivers. The show toured 12 Chicago parks in the summer of 2024 as a Goodman Theatre presentation.
The format belongs to a growing movement called Theatre for the Very Young, which creates performances specifically for children from birth to age 5. The productions are short, interactive, and designed to welcome the noise and movement that conventional theatre discourages. The Alliance Theatre describes the approach as providing “a unique cultural experience on the child’s own terms, nurturing focus and creative thinking for the first time.”
The Pasadena Playhouse production is directed by Rubén Gabriel Hernández, a Front of House Coordinator at the Playhouse who holds a bachelor’s degree in theatre from California State University, Los Angeles. His directing credits include Anatalia Vallez’s Las Sirenas at the Los Angeles Theater Center. The four-member cast features Bianca Flores, Christopher John Magallanes, Devin Sanclemente, and Ace Ramirez. Douglas Puskas designed the set and Jocelyn Tamayo designed the costumes.
“Our new season is fueled by the energy of owning our home again,” Danny Feldman, the Playhouse’s Producing Artistic Director, said in a season announcement. “It is bold, ambitious, and vibrant, offering the full spectrum of what theater can be — from toddlers to lifelong theater lovers.”
The park tour is part of the Playhouse’s broader community programming. The theater’s education offerings now include 16 community classes and two summer camps for students ages 5 to 105, according to the Playhouse website. Feldman has described education as central to the institution’s mission.
“Education is as core to us as the shows on stage,” Feldman told the Los Angeles Times.
Pasadena Playhouse, founded in 1917 by Gilmor Brown, is the State Theater of California, a designation it received from the California Legislature in 1937. The theater, designed by architect Elmer Grey and located at 39 S. El Molino Avenue, opened on May 18, 1925, and turned 100 in May 2025. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010, the Playhouse mounted a turnaround under Feldman’s leadership and received the 2023 Regional Theatre Tony Award. In April 2025, the Playhouse purchased its historic campus for $9.5 million — the first time it had owned the property since losing it in a 1970 bankruptcy.
One of the three tour stops carries particular local resonance. Loma Alta Park in Altadena, where performances are scheduled for April 18–19 and April 25–26, was damaged in the January 2025 Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures in the area. The park closed after the fire, was restored with the help of more than 2,000 volunteers and a $2.4 million grant from the Fire Aid benefit concert, and officially reopened on May 17, 2025. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger cut the ribbon at the reopening. Altadena is an unincorporated community in Los Angeles County; the park is managed by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.
The full performance schedule:
Playhouse Village Park, 701 E. Union Street, Pasadena: Saturday–Sunday, April 4–5 and April 11–12, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
Loma Alta Park, 3330 North Lincoln Avenue, Altadena: Saturday–Sunday, April 18–19 and April 25–26, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
Victory Park, 2575 Paloma Street, Pasadena: Saturday–Sunday, May 2–3, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
All tickets are free. As of March 18, the Playhouse website states that tickets are not yet on sale but visitors can subscribe to the mailing list for on-sale notification. For more information, visit pasadenaplayhouse.org or call 626-356-7529.
The sun disappears in Ada’s folktale. Every animal gives up the search — except one small lizard, who keeps looking. It is a story about perseverance, told in Spanish, acted out in the open air, for an audience that may not yet know how to clap.
