Once Upon a Time in Walnut Creek

Michelle Jackson dreamed about being an actress when she grew up.

As a girl in Pleasant Hill, she took children’s performances classes in her hometown and in San Francisco.

A news release from the Diablo Regional Arts Association (one of the organizers of Saturday's Chevron Family Theatre Festival) tells the story of Michelle Jackson and her favorite teacher from childhood, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, herself a Pleasant Hill native who would eventually gain renown as an Emmy Award-nominated puppeteer for Sesame Street and as the voice for other kids TV shows and films.

“Leslie was her inspiration,” said Freda Jackson, about the role Carrara-Rudolph played in the love her daughter found in theater.

Today, Michelle Jackson, 26, is an actor, writer and singer who teaches performance classes for kids at Washington D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company and the Smithsonian Institution.

Freda Jackson shared highlights of her daughter’s career with Carrara-Rudolph following her engaging, interactive puppet and storytelling show Saturday at the Lesher Center for the Arts. Carrara-Rudolph was one of two dozen professional artists and groups featured at the Lesher Center’s 5th annual Chevron Family Theatre Festival.

Freda Jackson was delighted to win tickets to sit in the front row of one of Carrara-Rudolph’s two Saturday performances. Jackson She wanted to thank Carrara-Rudolph in person for the encouragement she had once given her daughter.

Some 8,000 kids and their families filled the three theaters and lobby of the Lesher Center, and a block of Locust Street out front. They came to experience what has become a signature summer event in Walnut Creek: non-stop family-friendly day of arts and entertainment provided by local and national theater, music, dance, storytelling groups.

Kids experienced the magic of losing themselves to their imaginations by parading around the center with actors dressed as Cinderella, the Cowardly Lion and other favorite storybook characters. They got to dress up themselves as the Lion or Dorothy, make their own puppets and dance with pirates.

It’s possible, festival organizers hope, that a day like this will spur kids’ interest in the arts.

Some, like Freda Jackson’s daughter, Michelle, might even become interested in getting involved in local theater or arts programs.

Whether or not kids aspire to careers in the arts doesn’t matter, Carrara-Rudoph and other festival organizers say.

All kids benefit from the opportunity to sing, dance, bang on a drum, act out a story, or construct their own puppet and then put on their own puppet show. Arts puts kids in touch with their feelings, teaches them to express themselves, and engages their minds and spirits in ways that will serve them well in life.

In an interview with the Walnut Creek Journal, Carrara-Rudolph, who performed with Walnut Creek's Fantasy Forum Actors Ensemble in the 1980s, pointed out how events like the Family Theater Festival support parents efforts to enrich their kids’ lives.

"The theater has a lot of opportunities to fill in where schools and families are struggling to expose kids to the arts," she said.

To view more photos of the festival, the Diablo Regional Arts Association, one of the event's organizers, and photographer Ben Krantz, have provided a web page.