`MOTHER HICKS' PLAYS TO ALL AGES : CHARACTERS CELEBRATE LIFE AMID HARD TIMES.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

A Depression-era tale of social outcasts, featuring a local deaf actor and aimed at young audiences, is being staged every weekend this month at the Canyon Theatre.

``Mother Hicks'' stars Christin Dostalek, a 12-year-old Agua Dulce girl; and Matt Simmons, 17, a hearing-impaired Santa Clarita resident. The play opened Saturday; matinee performances are scheduled every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. through Sept. 1 at the playhouse, 13660 Sierra Highway.

Published in 1986 by children's playwright Susan Zeder, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, ``Mother Hicks'' was inspired by oral folklore collected by the writers assigned to the Work Projects Administration, established during the Roosevelt administration.

``The play is about three misfits in a small town. I feel that the underlying theme is finding happiness even when life is at its toughest,'' said Tekla Ackelson, director of the production and a graduate theater student at Cal State Northridge.

Dostalek plays an orphaned girl with no name, searching for someone to be her mother. ``She's looking for her people, someone to belong to,'' Ackelson said.

Simmons' character is a deaf teen-ager who, Ackelson said, becomes a ``guardian angel'' of sorts to the girl. Doubling as the narrator, Simmons' character speaks in verse, and his dialogue also is conveyed through sign language, the director said.

The title character, played by Charmain Posten, is ``an eccentric old woman who everyone believes is a witch,'' Ackelson said.

``They find each other and kind of form a little family. It's just a really beautiful story,'' she said.

Ackelson searched far and wide for a deaf teen-ager to play the male lead, finding Simmons at a school for the deaf in Burbank.

The story also is set against the backdrop of a scarlet fever epidemic, which illustrates another theme of the play, scapegoating.

``The town believes Mother Hicks to be a witch,'' said Ingrid Boydston, a member of the Canyon Theatre Guild board of directors. Her husband, Ben Boydston, is the play's producer.

Mother Hicks, Ackelson added, ``becomes a handy target (for townspeople's wrath) because she's a hermit and an eccentric and a midwife.''

Zeder was surprised at the number of witch tales the WPA writers collected in their travels during the Depression, and the play stemmed from that, Boydston said.

Other cast members are Peter Clark, Chuck Clow, Erwin Jackson, McKenna Morrisette, Shelly-Jo Oppen, Brad Rennels and Sherry Rucker.

``The play is perfect for ages 8 and up, but younger children are welcome to come,'' Ackelson said.

Added Boydston: ``It's not a fairy tale. It's more than that. It's got drama in it and conflict and excitement and a lot of humor,'' she said.

All of the cast's spoken dialogue at the Aug. 24 performance also will be signed by an interpreter positioned at the edge of the stage, which Ackelson hopes will draw a deaf audience to that show.

Tickets are $9 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens. For information, call [phone].