"The Wind in the Willows" in La Crosse

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to drive down to La Crosse, Wisconsin to see a production of my adaptation of The Wind in the Willows put on by the La Crosse Community Theatre.  This was a youth production comprising a total of 39 kids on and off stage, ranging in age from 8 to 16.  And they did a beautiful job.  LCT just recently moved into a new space and they made great use of it.  The sets, lights, and costumes were all gorgeous and really helped created the world.  The cast too did a wonderful job.  I was impressed with the level of acting they demonstrated, from the loyal faithful Rat to the menacing Chief Weasel (who had perhaps the coolest costume) to the younger forest animals who through their transitions between scenes created the bustling river community.

The director, Rebecca Seflow Hartzell, was recently hired on at LCT to further develop their youth program and is clearly doing a great job.  The kids were responsible for areas behind the scenes as well, stage managing and running the light board, for example.  I think whenever you given kids this kind of ownership over the production they will rise up to the responsibility  They all took their roles seriously and it paid off in a polished production.

Rebecca and the theater's executive director David Kilpatrick invited me to do a talkback with the cast, crew, and audience after the show.  The kids all asked great questions (sometimes better than the answers I could think of!) ranging from how the show differed from what I had envisioned to how long it had taken to write to how I started writing plays in the first place.  They were a fantastic group and I appreciated how welcome everyone made me felt.  So congrats to everyone involved for a job very well done.  I hope it will not be the last time my words are brought to life in this theatre.   It really was a treat to see my play in such good hands.