The Pavilion Theatre is going to be taken over by a giant and about 250 children all on the same day.

The School of Theatre's undergraduate project, called Drama Discovery, is putting on performances of Roald Dahl's book Big Friendly Giant every Tuesday and Thursday in March at the Pavilion Theatre exclusively for area elementary children.

Cheri Sinclair, director of marketing for the School of Theatre, said the children enjoy the performance and have lots of questions for the undergraduates.

"[The performance] is pretty funny," Sinclair said. "It's humorous. It's not scary by any means. They had a Q-and-A session afterwards, which was funny with little kids."

Sinclair said the shows they pick are geared for elementary children, and this year was no different. Big Friendly Giant is about a nice giant who, unlike mean giants, eats vegetables instead of people. In the end, the mean giants are forced to eat vegetables as well, instead of the people.

Sinclair said the undergraduates have creative costumes to match the imaginative story line of the play.

"They have great costumes," Sinclair said. "They have these huge puppet heads they wear."

Sinclair said the program is growing, and by next fall, the performances will move to the Playhouse Theatre in the Arts Building. There, the shows will be open to the public, as there will be more available seating.

Karen Durst, an associate professor in the School of Theatre, said Drama Discovery started as a traveling show with a few students.

"It has been around for a long time, about 15 years," Durst said. "We had a group called Drama Duo, a group of two or three students, and they went around in a station wagon to area schools. Now, the students come to us."

Durst said having the program in-house allows a greater theater experience when it comes to costumes and props.

"We can provide so much more here," Durst said. "There are enormous amounts of scenery and costuming. It makes us a very flashy experience."

The costuming for Big Friendly Giant required the cast to take on the shape of giants, and the undergraduates did an amazing job, Durst said.

"They had to make the actors about 8 feet tall," Durst said. "It's quite an amazing thing to see. The giant heads are all designed and built by the undergraduates as well."

Every year, the program reaches more than 2,000 elementary school children ranging in age from kindergarten to fifth grade, and Drama Discovery continues to be a very popular program, Durst said. Several area schools, as well as some as far as Williamsport, come to watch the performances.

"I just got through a pack of fan mail this morning," Durst said. "We're receiving lots of pictures of giants and thank you notes."

Holly Noelle Snyder (junior-theatre), a cast member, said the kids respond well to the play.

"I really like how the kids really believe in the magic of the theater," Snyder said. "The kids are great."

Snyder plays a girl named Rebecca, as well as a giant and the Queen of England.

"It's great," Snyder said. "We all play multiple parts."

Snyder said she thinks this is the perfect way to expose young children to theater.

"It's, for a lot of the kids, the first time they're exposed to theater," Snyder said. "Hopefully, they'll remember this and they'll become interested in theater. Maybe we can spark an interest."