I should state my biases up front: I do not think it is possible to hear the Oompa-Loompa songs too many times. Having read and loved the Roald Dahl book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” since childhood, I think the images of its candy wonderland and perfectly eccentric characters translate wonderfully as a musical.
Singing and dancing their way through Wonka’s magical fortress, the characters seem perfectly believable in their sugary Utopia, chiming their moral lessons, using as foils the degenerate caricatures of petulant brat Veruca Salt, electronics-obsessed Mike Teevee, gum-chewing
blabbermouth Violet Beauregard, and the over-indulgent Augustus Gloop. Charlie Bucket alone exemplifies a young person with the self-discipline, integrity, and selflessness to inhabit the world as Master of Ceremonies and candy factory owner Willy Wonka would have it exist: without hypocrisy, dishonesty, greed or selfishness.
So, upon hearing the Firehouse 5 Children’s Theatre Workshop would be performing “Willy Wonka” this season, I jumped to register my children, ages nine and seven, who love everything Roald Dahl has ever written. I assume the reader will understand my ecstatic glee on the first night, returning to find my nine-year-old son intently rehearsing choreography with his gifted and enthusiastic instructors Sarah Kelly and Tonya Andrews: two-on-one with him concentrating hard, singing verses over and over while demonstrating the dance—three of them “Oompa-Loompa-ing” across the stage.
It was an image I will not forget, a glimpse for me of the dedication of the staff of the workshop as well as the diligence they inspire in their students. It is also one of the most endearing things in the whole world to see a child, especially your own, doing the Oompa-Loompa dance.
As I observed from the inside, the level of professionalism and coordination the Firehouse staff of eight or nine is able to achieve is nothing less than staggering. The mere ability to keep nearly 70 children aged five to 18 years old both attentive and also from slamming into each other on stage is a feat in itself, but the workshop accomplishes much more. The working space the staff and participants create is a fun and safe one of exploration where inhibitions drop and the creative energy of each performer can be freed.
The lessons of theatre performance are one layer of the experience of the workshop—the vocal scales, tongue-twisters, limbering-up exercises, blocking, singing, lines and choreography—all are part of the learning experience of performing arts.
For my children, and for many with whom I spoke, the lessons extend well
into the social and interpersonal lives of these participants, and in that aspect especially, our community has an important resource for our often insular, disengaged young people.
The students’ commitment to each other to create the whole that is more than the sum of its parts is just one community-building piece of the experience. Follow-through and discipline are often more readily learned in just such an atmosphere of both mutual responsibility and support as these workshops create.
Performer Alex Armstrong has been participating in the workshop for years and can’t count the number of performances he’s played. As a Park High junior, he might seem out of place amongst the other young actors, but “loves working with kids” and even in this group ranging over 13 years in age, the camaraderie in their shared project onstage is evident.
Workshop instructor Sarah Kelly is another example of the full circle of
community theatre in Livingston. “Since I’ve been in the program since it started, I get to see the kids grow,” she says of the evolution of the young performers she now teaches. She has performed in local workshops since she was seven, and says she “loves getting to be around all the people who inspired me to do theatre.” As a sophomore at the University of Montana’s School of Theatre and Dance with an emphasis in Acting, her experiences with Firehouse 5 have shaped her career choice, and she now returns to help with the workshops along with the crew who once taught her in “Annie,” among many other plays.
“Willy Wonka” opened Friday, January 21, 2010 at the Firehouse 5 Theatre in Livingston with performances through the weekend of Saturday, January 22, 2010.
To support Crazy Mountain Productions/Firehouse 5’s ongoing capital
campaign to develop the East Side School building as a performing arts center in Livingston and continue the great work of this group in the Livingston community, visit http://www.crazymountainproductions.org/ and follow the links to donate or to learn more, or call 222-1420.
—Jen Eames
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