THE WEEK OF
December 17, 2003
The Little Match Girl
The Fourth Wall
Datebook
Winter Wonderland
Charlie Brown
Society
Photograph by Karen Gardiner
Guarded by the ghost of her grandmother, played by Leslie Burton, Lizzie, played by Amy Thompson, sells matches on the streets of London in Peninsula Youth Theatre's adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Match Girl.'
Got a Light?
The little match girl survives on cold London streets
By Estelle Hayes
In the third of the Stories on Stage series, Peninsula Youth Theatre presents an adaptation of The Little Match Girl Dec. 19 and 20 at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts.

While many local arts groups are swimming in images of sugarplum fairies and green Grinches, PYT's SecondStage adapts the Hans Christian Andersen tale of a poor girl selling matches on the cold streets of Victorian-era London.

The theater group's SecondStage presents seven dramatizations a year based on critically acclaimed books for children. Adaptations pepper its main stage productions, which this season include three musicals. Match Girl comes on the heels of PYT's production of Les Misérables, filling a winter void until the group presents two more popular children's books adapted for the stage, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in January and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing in February.

Peninsula Youth Theatre presents "The Little Match Girl" on Dec. 19 and 20. Tickets are $5 and $6. Call 650.903.6000 or go to www.pytnet.org for more information.