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Mountain Avenue kids dive into "Little Mermaid'

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Contributed by: Michelle Sirota on 1/22/2007

Galloping sea horses, singing mermaids, a lovestruck mer-boy next door and a snooty prince took the stage Saturday as Mountain Avenue School students dived into their production of The Little Mermaid.

The elementary students, performing in a play put on by Missoula Children's Theatre, got standing ovations at their 3 and 7 p.m. shows at Roosevelt Middle School in Glendale. (The school put on the play at the middle school's larger auditorium to accommodate crowds too large for its own space.)

The nation's largest touring children's theater company was invited by the school PTA to come to Mountain Avenue, which serves students in La Cresenta and La Canada. Two adult directors packed auditions and rehearsals in Monday through Friday and then the performances on Saturday.

Kirsten Vose was a little scared about her first big audition. The fourth-grader lined up with about 60 other students at Mountain Avenue as the directors walked up and down the line, bending closer as the children made faces on cue, repeated lines, sang, and lost their nervousness.

"One of my favorite things was when we were talking mad. I made a face and I started to yell," said Kirsten. As the school cafeteria/auditorium filled with lines shouted in mock anger and strains of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," the directors moved the kindergarteners through sixth-graders around and gave them their parts.

William Vose went to the auditions with his sister, wanting to direct. But once he got there, he decided he'd try acting. Directing could come later. After his role as a Sea Scout.

Missoula Children's Theatre, which has toured for more than 30 years from its Montana base to Japan, and has 35 teams of traveling directors, is about more than just the acting.

"It isn't really to teach theater," said Diandra Clevenger, who came to La Crescenta with her co-director and husband, Brandon Johnson, who also took to the stage as the dancing, singing and cooking father of four young mermaids. "It's to teach socialization, to teach confidence, to teach projection of the voice and cooperation between their peers."

Working intensely for a week and ending with the production is key, Clevenger said "They see the benefit," she said. "Their family and friends see the production and they get a huge sense of pride. We've seen a huge difference in some kids."

"Frequently we get kids who are scared. They don't even want to tell us their names," Clevenger said. That wasn't the case at Mountain Avenue. "All the kids are really enthused." Students signed up in advance, filling the production, a rare occurrence on Missoula's first time in a community, Clevenger said.

"I think it's a great opportunity for these kids. It's pretty intense," said Joy Wycliffe, whose son and daughter are in the play. "At the end they get this finished product and they get to see the evolution of it."

Wycliffe and his wife, Rebecca Wilkinson, hosted the directors during their stint in town.

"For our kids its a great boost to their self esteem," he said. "They get to stretch themselves a little bit."

Duncan Wycliffe, a sports-oriented fifth-grader, ended up with two solos as the King. "I didn't think I would like it this much, but it is really tough," he said.

It may have been tough, but the students pulled the performances off without a hitch. The townspeople sang, the king and queen decreed, the prince offered some priceless lines ("Those swords are SO yesterday."), the mermaids discovered they were happier under the sea, and none of the characters got eaten at the royal fish fry.

Kirsten Vose got over her initial nervousness at the audition and won a part as a Sea Scout, and portrayed a soldier, a scout, and worked as a puppeteer, guiding a pink fish through the air, er, water. She and the other scouts scrambled onto the stage to change land to water and water to land whenever the script called for a scene change. And then there was the fire-breathing highlight.

"We get to be in a dragon," she said. "I'm its stomach."

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