Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood opened on Thursday May 28th. While it is perhaps pure entertainment as opposed to being filled with life lessons, or a message, it has a high degree of performance art in it. The actor-singer-dancers are required to stretch themselves in all three fields of Triple Threat. Dancing, singing and acting. We give the kids two weeks to get their show up to give them a taste of what professional theatre is like. The leads have mics(courtesy of Sound Works) and the music by Steve Furster is very infectious. Megan Ready-Walters as Red is hilarious as the vacant lead character. She is probably the most talented performer in all three fields, with a beautiful singing voice. Hannah Smith is both funny and pathetic as the lonely wolf who has been abandoned by her wolf pack. She is a great singer and actor. Katherine Noyes as the Weeping Willow is very good at all three disciplines. The Weeping Willow is the focus of a lot of really bad tree jokes, such as (To the dog) "You're barking up the wrong tree!" to "I can't leave. My roots are here." Newcomer Paige McNeely is a blast as Red Riding Hood's dog Scrufy, the badly-trained, but loveable dog who opens the show with a rap song called: "Scruff-Doggy-Dog". There are other forest animals that pop in for a visit, as well as The Big Bad Woodsman (Claire Morgan) the assistant woodsman (Simon Derome) who doubles as a random salesman for fairy-tale life insurance. Julia Foster plays various grumpy woodland creatures. Shannon Broekhoven and Allyson Foster round out the cast as Mother and Grandmother respectively. These kids are very busy performers as they are constantly involved in shows around town. From singing lessons, to music lessons, to dance lessons to acting lessons, these kids are highly-trained and their performances show it. We look forward with great anticipation to next year's Triple Threat Class.