Another Exciting Season By Capital Playhouse’s Kids At Play

Alessa Daniel, playing Audrey, and Jordan Mullins, playing Seymour perform in "Little Shop of Horrors."
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By Alec Clayton

Capital Playhouse has been molding young actors through its Kids at Play (KAP) program for 25 years — going on 26 years now, beginning with the theater’s first year, 1986. The program boasts an enrollment of more than 300 students between the ages of 8 and 17. Many graduates of the program have gone on to adult careers in theater, and many of them continue to give back to the playhouse.

Alessa Daniel, playing Audrey, and Jordan Mullins, playing Seymour perform in "Little Shop of Horrors."

Heidi Fredericks, who is directing this summer’s Kids at Play production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” and who directed this season’s main stage production of “Hair,” is a Kids at Play graduate. So is Jimmy Blackmon, the KAP Coordinator this summer. “I certainly know of some people that overlapped with me in the program,” Blackmon said. “Like Eloise Mumford who has understudied Elisabeth Moss on Broadway and has been a series regular on network television shows ‘Lone Star’ and ‘The River’ and has made special guest appearances on ‘Crash,’ ‘Law and Order Special Victim’s Unit,’ and ‘Mercy.'”

Capital Playhouse’s Kids at Play is a comprehensive musical theatre and performance program using a summer stock model. Thousands of South Sound youth have sung, danced and acted in nearly 100 Kids at Play productions to the enjoyment of more than 250,000 audience members, according to the Capital Playhouse website.

The summer program started with “Tykes.” Now playing is “Little Shop of Horrors.” Coming up next will be “The Wiz,” followed by “Cinderella,” “Annie,” and finally “Les Misérables.” Each of these is a large production that involves big casts and Capital Playhouse’s fully professional sets, sound and lighting.

A large number of the students are in multiple shows this summer, especially older students. 8-12 year olds may sign up for up to two shows, 13-17 year olds up to three. “Little Shop” is by audition only because it is their honor/reunion show. Past graduates of the program who are in college or beyond also had the opportunity to audition. Blackmon said, “All of the other shows are open to any student age 8-17 who enrolls, and every student is guaranteed a role.”

“Little Shop” has a cast of 20 and “The Wiz” has a cast of 30. All but two of the cast members of “Little Shop” are returning students, and a large majority of the cast of “The Wiz” (directed by Artistic Director and Musical Director Troy Arnold Fisher) are also students returning from previous seasons. Blackmon says the veterans are not the only actors to watch for. “Many of our new students are making big waves, like Anthony Toney who is playing the scarecrow in ‘The Wiz,’ or Molly Anders who was just cast as the title character in ‘Annie’.”

Fredericks had this to say about “Little Shop of Horrors”:

“Thirty years ago, almost to the day, ‘Little Shop of Horrors opened off-Broadway.  It was July 1982, a month that saw weather balloons cause lawn chairs to fly, foreign kidnappings, tragedy on movie sets … and a lunar eclipse. Based on a 1960 low-budget horror movie, and expertly created by composer Alan Menken and written by Howard Ashman, it was a play unlike any other: a horror rock musical. As the character Audrey says, it was ‘strange and unusual’ to say the least.

Seymore, played by Jordan Mullins, in Little Shop of Horrors. Photo courtesy of Bailey Boyd

“There is so much to examine when trying to understand what is at the heart of ‘Little Shop’… Its absurdities are what make it memorable, but its honesty is what gives it charm. It is intrinsically a love story: it has a tragic hero, a fall from grace, a damsel in distress who is in fact culpable in some ways for her fate, and yeah, a man-eating space alien potted plant. The magic of ‘Little Shop’ is that these elements in no way contradict each other, but instead make the story all the richer. For all its dramatic tools and references, for all the gore and puppetry, it is a simple story that we can all relate to, whether or not we believe in Mean Green Mothers From Outer Space. Boy meets girl. Plant eats girl. But true love doesn’t die. Not so strange and unusual after all.”

Kids at Play schedule

Little Shop of Horrors – July 12-22

The Wiz – July 26-29

Cinderella – Aug. 2-5

Annie – Aug. 9-12

Les Misérables – Aug. 16-19

For tickets or more information visit Capital Playhouse.

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