Bill Shontz, Feeling Green, Makes Solo Album Debut

Bill Shontz, one half of the award-winning children’s singing duo Rosenshontz, makes an appealing solo debut in his album, “Animal Tales,” a new release from Lightyear Entertainment.

Shontz warms his original, environmentally correct songs about recycling, ecology awareness and conservation with friendly vocals, generous humor and sophisticated instrumentals. The multitalented performer adds his own contributions on clarinet, saxophone, flute and pennywhistle to synthesizers, piano, trombone, guitar and trumpet accompaniment.

Highlights include “Package Man,” the saga of a would-be cookie entrepreneur who gets bogged down in excess packaging, the catchy, doo-wop a Capella “Gus the Platypus,” the celebratory “Woodland Chorus” and the sweetly pensive “Ashes in the Rain.”

He gets a little help from some talented friends on “Green Up!” and “One Earth”--guest artists are Tom Chapin, Bob McGrath of “Sesame Street,” Tom Paxton, Joanie Bartels, Don Cooper and Lea Salonga of “Miss Saigon.”

* “Animal Tales,” Lightyear Entertainment. Cassette: $8.98; CD: $12.98-$14.98. For information on where to find the album, and to request the accompanying Sing-Along, Play-Along Coloring Book, call (800) 229-STORY.

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Youth Speaks: Works by teen-age writers will be performed in “We’re Talking L.A. Here: Works by Young Playwrights,” presented by the Playwrights Project and the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble May 7-16.

The centerpiece will be “We’re Talking Today Here,” a drama by Annie Weisman, 19-year-old winner of the 1992 California Young Playwrights Contest. Also on the bill will be rehearsed readings of short plays developed in the Dream Lab, a playwriting group for Los Angeles youths ages 14 to 18 from public schools and under-represented communities. Information: (310) 477-2055.

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Serendipity Schedule: Serendipity Theatre’s fourth season at the Coronet Theatre will include “Anne of Green Gables” (Sept. 10-Oct. 31); “Tuck Everlasting,” based on Natalie Babbit’s award-winning novel (Nov. 5-28); “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” (Dec. 3-23), the first stage adaptation of Peggy Parish’s “Amelia Bedelia” (Feb. 18-April 10, 1994); a participatory “Aladdin” (April 15-May 22, 1994) and the first stage adaptation of Jon Scieszka’s “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs” (June 3-July 31, 1994). The Jan. 7-Feb. 13, 1994 slot will be filled by one of two classics: Either “Captains Courageous” or “The Death and Life of Sherlock Holmes.”