Historical Trends in Fashion and Theater

1.Seen in a San Francisco window display, hot fall fashion trend are knickers. 2. Playing in theater: The kids aren't all right, Patsy Cline once sang, "If I could see the world through the eyes of a child, what a wonderful world this would be." But those "Feed the Children" commercials tell a sadder story. Award-winning playwright Timothy Mason, who has built a career on tracing childhood suffering through turbulent periods in U.S. history, returns with the fourth installment in ACT's Young Conservatory New Plays Program, Mullen's Alley. Based on Jacob Riis' classic exposé How the Other Half Lives and featuring seven actors aged 13 to 17, the play chronicles the brutal hardships faced by youthful slum-dwellers in the Five Points neighborhood of Industrial Revolution-era New York City, where children are forced into harsh labor, even crime, in order to survive. Mullen's Alley opens Friday night at 7:30 (and continues through Aug. 28) at the Zeum Theater