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Columbus Children’s Theatre performs two classics for AIS students
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.The performance of "Sleeping Beauty" began at the Austintown library, with Columbus Children's Theatre performers, from left, Megan Louia, Morgan Thomas-Mills and George Bailey onstage.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Columbus Children's Theatre performers, from left, Eli Brickey, Morgan Thomas-Mills and George Bailey interacted with the children before the start of the play.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Third-grade students from Austintown Intermediate School began to file into the Austintown library's meeting room for the afternoon performance of "Sleeping Beauty."
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Third-grade students from Austintown Intermediate School filled the Austintown library's meeting room for the performance of "Sleeping Beauty" by the Columbus Children's Theatre.
By TIM CLEVELAND
Third-grade students from Austintown Intermediate School were treated to a performance of two different plays by the Columbus Children’s Theatre on Dec. 10, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Scrooge.”
“Sleeping Beauty” was performed at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., while “Scrooge” was put on at 6 p.m. Each performance lasted about 45 minutes.
The four members of the Columbus Children’s Theatre who performed the plays were George Bailey, Eli Brickey, Megan Louia and Morgan Thomas-Mills.
The quartet travels throughout Ohio and performs at libraries, schools, churches and after-school groups. They do approximately 10 shows per week and 250 per year. Bailey said after leaving Austintown, the troupe was heading to Cleveland the following day and West Salem the day after that.
“We basically live out of that van,” he said. “Not literally, but it feels like that.”
The Columbus Children’s Theatre began in 1963 and is in its 48th year as a touring company. Prospective performers audition annually through the Ohio Theatre Alliance.
Bailey said the morning performance that day went well.
“It went really well,” he said. “We had third-graders from Austintown Intermediate School. They really enjoyed it. They were pumped; they had a lot of energy.”
Bailey said the children are encouraged to get involved in the play.
“We’re used to having a lot of audience participation,” he said. “I usually encourage kids to talk back to us. If they start doing that, it’s my favorite part because you never know what they’re going to say. It’s a much different theatre environment. You never know if you’re going to have someone crying or someone screaming or someone just talking to you because they just want to talk.”
While the group only performed two plays during its time in Austintown, they had several others memorized that they would perform in other towns, including “Pinocchio,” “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “Young Abraham Lincoln,” “The Child Writing Project,” which are stories written by children, and “The Box Show,” which is designed for children pre-kindergarten and younger.
“It’s all about imagination and what can be made with boxes,” Bailey said. “We have to have all those shows in their heads at all time.”
Bailey said that “Sleeping Beauty” and “Scrooge” are performed based on the original stories.
“It’s not Disney,” he said. “We also try to put a moral and a positive message on all of our shows, such as anti-bullying and don’t judge people on their exterior. We have the 13th Wise Woman, who’s the villain of the piece and basically the reason she’s the villain is because she looks funny, she talks funny.
“She’s played by Morgan, so she’s an odd-looking woman. When we judge her, she gets mad and puts the curse on the child, but at the end of the show we realize it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”