What’s in a name? In the case of children’s performer Diana Shmiana, many more names. For example, there’s Oyprah, the talk-show hostess, Bongo Bennie the Beatnik and the befuddled Israeli detective Daveed, for starters.
Since Shmiana, aka Diana Naparst of San Francisco, began doing her “Shpiel-O-Rama” shows a little over a year ago, these and others in her arsenal of wacky characterizations have delighted hundreds of children in the 3- through 7-year-old age range throughout the Bay Area.
Her next gig honors Chanukah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice and other miracles of light on Saturdays and Sundays, Dec. 5, 6, 12 and 13 at San Francisco’s The Marsh.
“A Winter Wonder-Rama” is co-produced by Naparst and Gina Scher, program director of The Marsh’s Growing Stage, a children’s theater. The performance also features Yolanda Thomas, sharing Kwanzaa lore from Africa, puppeteer Liebe Wetzel and storyteller Luis Oropeza.
Naparst’s portion of the program — which at the final show will be performed by Scher, a Jewish storyteller in her own right — is excerpted from “The Quest for the Missing Candles,” one of five original Diana Shmiana productions linked to various Jewish celebrations.
While Scher performs the excerpt on Dec. 13, Naparst will be presenting the full-length “Quest” at 2 p.m. that day at the annual Chanukah party of the Peninsula Jewish Community Center in Belmont.
Naparst has a strong commitment to young people. By day, she’s a licensed clinical social worker, specializing in at-risk youth. Her performing persona addresses both her intense Jewish involvement and her rapport with the preschool crowd.
“I find the sort of performance I do lends itself to that age group,” she said. “I sing, I dance, I shtick around. I do a lot of puppetry and use colorful props. Some of it is pretty silly and kids that age seem to respond. A lot of it is very interactive, and very young children are not too self-conscious about participating.”
Overcoming her own stage fright was a hurdle for Naparst. “I was a wannabe performer as a kid,” she explained, “always dressing up and pretending. Then I spent a lot of years being too self-conscious to perform.”
But a decade ago, while working as a volunteer in Israel, she had an opportunity to perform for children in elementary schools in the Negev. It was a transformational experience, she said.
“I found that while I might have stage fright in a bunch of other ways, I had no inhibitions about getting up in front of a bunch of children and acting silly. “
She subsequently studied with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Bay Area TheatreSports and the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre before going solo with a 1997 Rosh Hashanah show. Her stage name was “the first thing that came to mind. It just seemed right. It has a very Jewish ring to it, too.
“My mission as Diana Shmiana is not only to entertain kids, but to educate them,” she said. “You could call it `edutainment.’ More than anything else, I want to instill in children a positive sense of Jewish identity — a sense that Jewishness equals fun.”
Her own Jewish identity was formed early on. She grew up in Berkeley in a family that was “culturally but not particularly religiously observant.” But when it was time for Hebrew school, her family chose the Orthodox Congregation Beth Israel. She went there for seven years.
“Either they wanted me to get a rigorous Jewish education or there was a car pool going,” she said. “Either way, I learned to daven at a very young age.”
Now in her mid-30s, she is trying to pass that early love of Judaism on to another generation.