"We invent something in our imaginations, then we find a way to make it happen," says Stacy Klein, co-director of "The Firebird."

That's no small feat for this wildly imaginative, internationally recognized, laboratory theatre. "Firebird" is the eighth Summer Spectacle staged at Double Edge. The story is based on a Russian folk tale with tsars, princes, princesses, magicians, witches and magic birds, although the Double Edge original version will also draw from other firebird and phoenix legends.

The production will be very large for Double Edge, according to Carlos Uriona, master actor and producing director, with 25-30 participants and with many of those ordinary barns and gardens to be transformed at nightfall by candlelight and costume into dazzling stages and backdrops.

"The Firebird goes different places," says Klein of the story, and the audience will go with her.

SO don't expect to sit back in a comfy chair.

Mise en scene

This weel, as Klein envisions the topography and trajectory of the performance, her arms swing wide to show off the farm. She points to the various walkways, crannies and rooftops chosen for scene or spectacle - she's a veteran director after all and knows what she wants - and her eyes sweep the green hillside seeking dramatic possibility.

"The Firebird" will open under a tent at a circus, thanks to al collaboration with the New England Circus School. From there, actors and audience members will journey along a garden path for scene two to an arbored nook with an apple tree laden with golden fruit.

As the story unfolds, the action will wing to a bubbling brook - a real one - then to a fork in the path at the vegetable garden (careful of the strawberry plants) where dancers will twirl in the twilight and the Firebird will fly by.

"Things will happen along the way," KLein says with a grin and glance back at some high bushes, just thick enough and tall enough to hide mischief-makers. She says "the spirit of adventure" is intended to energize both the actors and the audience.

From the garden, it's back to the circus tent, says Klein, "which will be totally different by then" - a new set, the circus gone - then onward.

We won't spoil it for you, but things sound as if they get better and better - aerial theater, a pond ringed with icons and flame, a suitable place for a watery, fiery ending. The cows' placid hillside will be a perfect place for the first flight of a fledgling.

Inspiration and community support

The artwork for this production is inspired by the work of Marc Chagall, who, in 1949, designed the sets and costumes for "The Firebird" at the New York City Ballet.

Double Edge is inclined towards Chagall, having borrowed his aesthetic for other productions such as "The Arabian Nights" last summer and the company is beginning a five-year cycle focusing on Chagall's work. Klein says the music for "The Firebird" is better than that for productions in previous years. The writing is better, too. Collaborators for the performance include Co-Director Matthew Glassman, writer John Freedman and actress Oksana Mysina (both from Moscow), the Charlestown Working Theater of Boston and q-Staff theatre of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Klein and Uriona expect all 30 performances will sell out.

"The community supports us," says Klein, noting that eight years ago the first summer production ran for only three performances. Organizers say that the 10-fold increase in the run reflects growing demand. Locals will fill half the seats per performance, they say. The rest of the seats will be occupied by members of the Double Edge "community" from New York, Boston, and around the world.

"We are a local and international company," says Klein.

It will be an adventure. The performance is family friendly. Chairs will appear on occasion and high heels are not recommended - this is a real farm with real dirt and all the rest - although Klein says people still do wear them. Performances are rain or dry.

"The Firebird" opens July 24-25 for preview performances, then runs July 29 - August 22, Wednesday - Sunday at 8pm. Order tickets online at doubleedgetheatre.org or call 413-628-0277. Ticket prices are $25/adults, $22/students and seniors and $18/children. Ashfield residents' adult price is $20, Ashfield students and seniors/$18, and Ashfield children/$15.