Imagination Stage presents the premiere of The Neverending Story, co-commissioned by Imagination Stage and Seattle Children's Theatre.  The script is by acclaimed Canadian playwright David S. Craig, based on the German novel Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende. This marks the first time that the classic book is brought to the English-speaking stage, and in a production that has received a prestigious grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

A brief synopsis of the story: young Bastian escapes his lonely reality by losing himself in the pages of a thrilling book. There he discovers the land of Fantastica, a place being threatened by The Nothing, which destroys everything in its path. The Childlike Empress sends the unlikely hero Atreyu, a boy of Bastian's age, on a quest to find the one who can save Fantastica and its cast of characters.

Atreyu's adventure takes him to the far corners of Fantastica, through the Swamp of Sadness, the cave of a giant spider, and the maze of the Southern Oracle. With the help of the flying Luck Dragon, Falkor, he manages to survive the harrowing journey, defeating the werewolf who is bent on the destruction of imagination itself. But Atreyu cannot save the day. It is Bastian, through his belief in the story, who becomes the hero of The Neverending Story.

This epic fantasy adventure, in the tradition of The Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, requires equal parts technical theatre wizardry and theatre imagination to bring to the stage.  To that end, Imagination Stage Artistic Director and Director of The Neverending Story, Janet Stanford, has assembled a diverse and accomplished creative team.  Composing the evocative, symphonic score is Fahir Atakoglu, the locally-based Turkish pop star.  In April, Atakoglu's new release, Istanbul in Blue, debuted at #39 on the Top 50 Jazz Albums Chart and at #4 on the World Music Album Chart.  The movement consultant is Leslie Felbain, who will be working this fall at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and has a varied background including performing in a French circus.  There will be puppets designed by Eric Van Wyk and projections by Deborah Wheatley, all adding up to bringing Fantastica to life.

Beyond its first productions at Imagination Stage and in Seattle, the script will be produced at two other top children's theatres in the US next season, Childsplay in Tempe, Arizona and Dallas Children's Theatre.