Production provides toddlers a sweet introduction to stage

Children’s theater works best when it reaches out to youngsters at their level instead of talking down to them.

The younger the children, the harder that is to do.

So it’s a pleasure to see how deftly Columbus Children’s Theatre’s “The Box Show” — conceived and directed by William Goldsmith and performed by the CCT Touring Co. — reaches the youngest of children with a play targeted to those 18 months to 3 years old.

If all theater is make-believe, this show is even more so. With gentle humor and a sense of magic, it wordlessly tells the simple story of a young girl (an expressive and believably childlike Abby Zeszotek) in the

middle of a big move.

Surrounded by stacks of cardboard moving boxes, and obviously missing her favorite doll, the girl is wellcared for by a loving father (played by Alex Lefeld with sensitivity, affection and restraint) who regularly checks on her and briefly plays with her.

But she also has a life of her own apart from her parents. After playing with stuffed animals from one of the boxes, she hears noise from one of the bigger boxes.

She’s delighted to see a playmate emerge (a lively Mary Paige Rieffel) just her size, and the two of them find plenty of games to play together.

The production also reaches out to involve the kids in the audience, handing them boxes of pasta to shake in a percussive concert.

The show goes out of its way to make those audience members comfortable, offering them carpet squares so they can sit onstage with the actors. At the 1 p.m. performance on Saturday afternoon, the enthusiastically involved and attentive audience was as much fun to watch as the actors.

Although the play is wordless, it’s not silent. Morgan Thomas-Wills on guitar and Lefeld on didgeridoo and other instruments provide appropriate background for all the action.

Caregivers seeking to introduce children to the wonders of theater won’t find any way better than this.