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...

Mary Poppins, as Presented by the Children's Musical Theater, a Program Offered by the Troy Recreational Department

In July, Sonja Hyer and Rebecca O'Brien directed the third musical of the summer for the Troy Rec Department.  Musical Director and Choreographer was Katie Swank.

These musicals are always fun to watch.  The actors and actresses ranging in age from entering first grade to entering tenth grade meet for less than thirty hours.  In two weeks they have a  play to present in the Troy Civic Theatre for parents and friends.  The directors and choreographer/music director give them enough direction for the play to be coherent but not so much that it loses its childlike spontaneity.  Actors and parents come up with the costumes.  Sometimes they find what they need in the Troy Civic Theatre costume collection.

On the first day, the directors meet the players and decide who will play the various roles.  This year there were thirty-one players.  Most of these children play several roles.

Because the time involved is short , the leading roles are divided among two or three actors. This  reduces the number of lines for each actor and gives more actors an opportunity to play leading roles.
Here are some photos from the play.  I call the various Marys Mary1, Mary2, Mary 3 etc.

Another Nanny leaves the Banks' household.

Jane 1 and Michael 1 put in their order for the perfect nanny.  Mr. Banks 1 is unimpressed.

Nannies wait outside the Banks' house for interviews.

Mary Poppins 1 arrives.  Mr Banks 2 can not believe Mary's audacity.

Jane 2 and Michael 2 watch Mary Poppins magically pull all kinds of things out of her bag.

No-nonsense Mary Poppins tells Jane and Michael "A Spoonful of Sugar" is all that is needed.

Jane 2 and Michael 2 and Mary Poppins 2 meet Bert 1 in the park.

They ride on the carousel...

and off the carousel.

The entire company...

joins in...

to sing they are having a "Jolly Holiday" with Mary.

Mary Poppins, Jane, Michael and Bert meet the fox hunters...

and protect the fox.

After Mary Poppins wins the horse race, reporters interview her.

Jane 1 and Michael 1 tell Mr. Banks 3 and Mary Poppins 2 about their wonderful day.  Mrs. Banks looks on.

Mary Poppins gives Jane and Michael their evening tonic...and tells them in song that they can "Stay Awake".

The next day outside the bank the Bird Woman sings "Feed the Birds".

Mr. Banks 1 is not happy that Michael wants to give his money to the Bird Woman rather than putting it in the bank.

Michael tells Mr. Bank's boss at the bank that he won't give him his money.

Mr, Banks 3 is told he is fired.

The Constable reports Mr. Banks is missing.

Mr. Banks comes home with a kite.

The entire company sings "Let's Go Fly a Kite".

The chimney sweeps and the rest of the company sing and dance to "Chim Chim Cheree"

.

The actors and actresses bow amid applause from the audience.

Everyone left for home smiling as they went.

Children's Musical Theater, Whose Contest Is It Anyway?

Tuesday afternoon I went to the second Children's Musical Theater production of the summer.  This one, "Whose Contest Is It Anyway?" was a parody, a spoof, drawn from the popular young adult book, The Hunger Games.  Being an "old granny" as one of my grandchildren calls me, I haven't read the book but I still thoroughly enjoyed the play.   That was because the plot was clear and easy to follow.  It also helped that the contestants were super heroes and fairy tale characters that I know.  Only  Tony Stark was unfamiliar to me but the girl who portrayed him did a good job.

The nine actors, who will either start high school this fall or who are already in high school, wrote the play and also the original lyrics to  several of the songs.  In addition, two of them were recognized in the playbill for developing several of the dances.  They did the entire job in twenty-four hours spread over a period of two weeks.   

The directors were Sonja Hyer, Rebecca O'Brien and Gretchen Weber.  Eric Hyer, my grandson, ran the lights.  Sonja said, in her introduction of the play that he was given his cue sheet for the lights and sound effects on Monday.  That's cutting the finishing of the production very close to the performance day.  But Eric and all the cast did a great job.

The opening number, One, from A Chorus Line.

Tony Stark sang about what was most important to him in life, Love. 

The three beauties, Tinkerbell, Belle, and Cinderella, joined in as backup to Tony's song.  They did a nice softshoe routine as well.

"Bad Reputation"  was such a lively dance and song, it was hard to get a photograph.

  

Mary Meyer took a good photo of the contestants choosing their weapons after the song and dance.

Above the actors, you can see the banks of lights that Eric was controlling.

Here are seven of them holding their chosen weapons and waiting for their interview.  Joker tried to make the time go faster by telling jokes but only he laughed at them.

Beast and Hulk had an argument.

Poor Beast.  Belle was in love with him but he was in love with Cinderella.  Beast died from love.

Cinderella and Belle didn't like one another.  In fact, they sang a song about their feelings, "What is This Feeling?"  The feeling began with "L" as you might expect.  Loathing was the feeling.

Joker really worked at settling the bad feelings between the girls.  She/He finally succeeded as she/he sang, "All You Need Is Love".

                                     Photo by Mary Meyer

Since Belle couldn't have Beast, she decided Captain America was really the one for her.

                                             Photo by Mary Meyer

Whenever Thor and  Captain America argued, all the contestants fled.  Thor had very bad aim with his hammer.  Finally they killed one another. (off stage)  Belle was without a boy friend again.

                                     Photo by Mary Meyer

Hulk had  jumped behind a bush.  Unfortunately, the bush was poison ivy.  As he itched and suffered, he sang about the bush of ivy.  The tune he used was "Rings of Fire", the song you probably have heard sung by Johnny Cash.  The poison ivy killed him off.

                                               Photo by Mary Meyer

 Eventually everyone was dead except Tony, Belle, Tinkerbell and Cinderella.  Tinkerbell tried to keep the girls' spirits up by singing, "Don't Stop Believing."  But then Tony came in and declared, "I don't believe!"  Poor Tinkerbell.  In the book (and play) Peter Pan, I learned that fairies die if people don't believe and that is  how Tinkerbell met her end.

                                    Photo by Mary Meyer

Tony consoled Belle and Cinderella by telling them that now there were only three of them and they could trust each other.

                                     Photo by Mary Meyer

But Belle and Cinderella were suspicious.

Tony asked them to get him some grapes.  Belle went off to find some.  All she found were some berries down by the creek which looked a little like grapes.  She fed one to Tony.  He choked.  "That wasn't a grape.  That was Deadly Nightshade."  He staggered off stage to die.

Back on stage again, the production ended with a lively chorus of "We Are the Champions".

                                     Photo by Mary Meyer

The final bows.

                                    Photo by Mary Meyer