Space Pirates, A New Children's Musical, presented by children in the summer program of the Troy Recreational Department

My daughter, Sonja Hyer, directs the Troy Rec Department's Children's Musical Theater productions. This is at least her tenth year as director.  The Troy Civic Theatre provides the stage, lights and sound system.

This year she was aided by  Rebecca O'Brien and Sydney Edington.  Katie Swank was in charge of the music and choreography, something she has done for several years. It is fun to see the imaginative choreography and the enthusiasm of the cast as they dance and sing.

 I saw the first of two performances last Tuesday afternoon.  Fiona Atkinson was the lighting and sound technician for that performance.

The cast consisted of students who will be in first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grades this fall.  They had about twenty hours of rehearsals.  As a comparison, the typical community theater group (adults) generally has at least forty hours of rehearsals, often more.

The play begins as a museum docent is about to take a group of children on a tour.

The docent is dressed in black at the far left.  The children are singing a song about what they think they will be seeing..."Old Stuff".

Suddenly four of the children find themselves spinning and moving through space and time.  They wind up on an alien spaceship.

"Taylor", the boy, is not happy when the aliens decide to take the children to their home planet, Zoogleblotz.  He knows what aliens are like and he warns his classmates what to expect by singing "That's What Aliens Do'.  And that is nothing good.

More aliens join in as they dance and sing about their wonderful home.

In the alien lab, the scientists examine the earthlings.

The scientists teach the children about being an alien and living on the alien planet.

The children don't really want to live on the alien planet. They want to go home  They don't know more trouble is on the way.

An pirate ship looking for other ships to loot and plunder attacks the alien vessel.

The pirates want their captives to become pirates.  They dance and sing a song,  "If You Want to be a Pirate"

The captives don't want to be pirates. The aliens want to go home to Zooglebotz.  The children want to go home to earth. Since that is the case, the pirates plan to make the captives walk the plank.

The sad captives sing the "Captured by Space Pirate Blues".

But the plucky captain of the aliens manages to escape the ropes and finds the box that will return them to the alien ship when she pushes the button on the box.

Once back on the alien ship, the alien's captain sends the children on to the museum on earth.

Strangely, every thing seems to be normal when they return.  And normal is all right with them.

Here the entire cast returns to sing and dance again to the alien song, Argh A Riptoo.

The final bows...