Last spring students at Saint Thomas More Preparatory School brought some of childhood’s kookiest characters to stage in “Seussical.” Now they’re going even more old-school by bringing toy box favorites to life in “Raggedy Ann & Andy” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, at the Schwartz Center for the Arts.
“After ‘Seussical’ they were so excited they wanted to do another kids’ show right away,” director Lorraine Steinhoff said.
“Raggedy Ann & Andy” is not a musical although there is music and a bit of dancing in the approximately 90-minute show, Steinhoff said. It’s geared toward students in pre-K through third grade.
It’s centered on the title characters and their fight to save one of their fellow toys, Babette. Babette is a porcelain doll and a birthday present to Marcella, who owns Raggedy Ann and Andy and all their friends. One day, Prince Leonard-the-Looney-Hearted rides in on his hobby horse and kidnaps Babette, taking her back to Looney-land. So Raggedy Ann, Andy and friends take to the woods to find their friend.
Steinhoff said this is a great show for grandparents who likely grew up with the folk dolls, and can share them with a new generation.
“There’s no way you can’t love these characters,” said Natalie Mayan, who plays Raggedy Ann.
She explained that sprinkled throughout the show there are moments where she offers her fellow toys and the audience moral tidbits. “There are no strangers here, Babette, there are only friends we haven’t met,” is one such offering, and one that’s suited as Babette’s portrayer Ann Katzmiller describers her character as conceited.
One of the joys of performing for a young audience, Mayan said, is that they aren’t afraid to laugh. In this show they’ll also get the chance to participate. Mayan and Lauren David, who plays Witch Wigglewort, get to converse with the audience and ask for their advice. David said kids enjoy talking to the evil characters because they feel they’re helping defeat the bad guys.
“They respond more so to the mean characters,” David said.
Steinhoff said the audience old and young will get involved in the show.
“It is so infectious,” she said.
Email Sarika Jagtiani at sarika.jagtiani@doverpost.com
IF YOU GO...
WHAT “Raggedy Ann & Andy” by the Saint Thomas More Preparatory School
WHEN 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4
WHERE Schwartz Center for the Arts, 226 S. State St., Dover
ADMISSION $10
MORE INFO www.schwartzcenter.com
