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Young performers held to high standards in Saturday show

Morgan Creekbaum, who plays one of the three pigs in the Middletown Performing Arts Academy production of “Lemonade,” rehearses Wednesday evening, Nov. 18, at Monroe High School.

Contributed photo by Jessica Uttinger Morgan Creekbaum, who plays one of the three pigs in the Middletown Performing Arts Academy production of “Lemonade,” rehearses Wednesday evening, Nov. 18, at Monroe High School.

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer Updated 12:07 PM Friday, November 20, 2009

MONROE — Mother Goose stories and fairy tales seem so lively and bouncy, it’s easy to forget their characters often lead pretty miserable lives.

Consider: Two of the three little pigs have their houses blown down by the big bad wolf. That same wolf terrorizes Little Red Riding Hood. A spider frightens away Little Miss Muffet. That little old woman who lives in a shoe has so many children she doesn’t know what to do.

That makes them the perfect candidates to star in a play called “Lemonade” being staged by the Middletown Performing Arts Academy at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at Monroe Jr./Sr. High School. The title refers to what you make when life gives you lemons, whether they come in the form of a spider or a big bad wolf.

The short show, lasting about a half-hour, is a production of the Academy’s Children’s Community Theatre, performed by more than two dozen area children who are in kindergarten through second grade.

Even though the kids are young, the directors of the show, Barbara Orth and Diedra Berry, hold them to very high standards. At a rehearsal earlier this week, Orth told the cast, “You started singing like little kids, not like singers.”

Berry said, “Because it’s the Middletown Performing Arts Academy, it’s very important that we strive for excellence. We teach them proper singing technique.”

The teachers also use terminology kids can understand. When telling the kids how to pose a certain way during a number, she told the kids to make an “X” with their hands above their heads.

All this instruction helps the kids save the day when the characters in “Lemonade,” with some prompting from Mother Goose, realize they have to take it upon themselves to turn their lives around.

Tickets for the show are $5 and can be obtained by calling (513) 594-7242

Children’s play explores lemons and lemonade

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