Wind in the Willows

I saw our middle school OAP performance of “Wind in the Willows” Sunday afternoon.  It’s a good play.  Not that I know anything at all about judging one act plays or anything, but this seems like a neat play to get all the talent we have involved.  It’s not the kind of play that rides on the shoulders of one or two actors, there is lots of meaningful action and dialogue from multiple actors and some well choreographed action with 10+ actors at once.  Pretty neat to see these young ones have all that down.  I was impressed with their performance almost all the way around.

Shane plays the part of Jack Weasel, and he did a nice job Sunday.  His part is a ne’er-do-well type of part, the leader of a disreputable band of weasels that are played very much like gypsies (the play timeframe is 1909 so I think this fits).  Cindy wants him to play it like Johnny Depp; are we having some fun with that.  His costume is probably the most outrageous of the set, wearing boots with loose striped pants tucked into them, a large sash/belt, an oversized jacket and a bandanna on his head atop which sits a large top hat.  It’s a hoot.  He has some parts where he leads the weasels onto the set in the dark, and they slink in with his profile outlined against the backdrop — it’s very cool.  He has some significant lines in the play and I thought he did them very well Sunday (then again, I would).

During Sunday’s performance Hayden came very near having a major wardrobe malfunction but played through it brilliantly.  In fact, I was not sure what occurred wasn’t supposed to be in the play.  It was just a riot.  I found out afterward that this was not supposed to happen, but you sure couldn’t tell it.  Well done.

They are two weeks away from contest (11/14) and have two more public performances.  Good luck troupe!

EDIT: Their last public performance is Sunday 11/8 at 3pm in the high school auditorium.

Here’s a shot that includes Shane from the first public performance:

Jack Weasel lead his clan and Mr. Toad away before killjoys return.