Grade 3 students recently enjoyed seeing a play about clever Brer Rabbit, one of the craftiest characters in children’s literature, during a mid-March field trip to the Sunnyvale Community Theater.

Derived from African American folktales passed down in the American South, the play “The Adventures of Brer Rabbit” was written by Gayle Cornelison and first performed in 1977 at the community theater, part of a larger complex of buildings serving as Sunnyvale’s artistic community hub.

The play is based on the book originally titled “Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit,” which was written by Julius Lester. In both the book and play, Brer (short for Brother) Rabbit is locked in an eternal game of “catch-me-if-you-can” with the sly fox, using the most outrageous tricks to constantly outsmart him.

“The play was fantastic! The kids had a blast,” enthused Elise Robichaud, who teaches grade 3 language arts. After seeing the story on stage, the children returned to their classroom and excitedly wrote paragraphs about their experience watching the performance.