Friday, April 8, 2011

STUART LITTLE

For the past two months I have been directing 33 young people aged 7 - 16...thirty three energetic creative and very kind young people of various levels and skills.  Some are performing onstage for their first time...some have been in all three plays I've directed for Davidson Community Players Connie Company.  I didn't like the script but found a way to make it work both for my artistic needs as well as an educational vehicle for the actors involved.  I chose to conceptualize the play in 1945, when the book was published by E.B White.   I saw it starting off on a street in NYC (the script has a narrator telling the story...I wanted the narrator to be a character in the play...so divided the narrator parts and gave them to the various characters in the play)  in early morning with birds and cats entering and then people starting off their day buying newspapers and waiting for the bus...I wanted to put an opening 'swing time' dance in the play and one of my actors suggested May 8, 1945 and the celebration of D-Day, end of the war in Europe!  Great idea!







Another topic we discussed was the importance of women in the work force since so many men were fighting in the war.  The ensemble has done a bang-up job of creating interesting characters and eight year old Dwayne Allgoods a spectacular job of learning a bizillion lines and leading the show with his innocence, strength and energy. Eight of the nine shows were sold out before we opened and the ninth show sold out this past week.  BRAVO Cast of STUART LITTLE!!!

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