A cast of Young Performers Theater’s production of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web performs on stage at Odess Theater in the Sitka Fine Arts Campus. (Photo by Clarice Johnson, courtesy of Young Performers Theater)
Taking part in a theater production is a lot of hard work. The amount of lines and stage directions that need to be memorized can seem daunting. That’s especially true for the less-experienced cast members in the Young Performers Theater’s production of Charlotte’s Web. Some are as young as seven years old.
But there’s more to it that just memorizing lines like a robot. Director Zeke Blackwell said kids have to figure out how to express themselves and their characters on stage. It takes some trial and error.
“Oh yeah that was really fun. That felt really good. That worked. Let’s move that direction. Or that was weird and uncomfortable. Let’s try something else,” Blackwell said, describing the discussions he has with the children in the cast as they rehearsed the play.
But the kids aren’t just here to put on a show, Blackwell said. They’re learning how be expressive, how to be confident and how to listen.
“I think that’s a huge one.” Blackwell said. “They’re learning how to listen to other people, they’re learning how to listen actively and to develop understanding and empathy.”
They’re also learning what it means to be a good friend. Charlotte’s Web is E.B. White’s tale of the friendship between a pig named Wilbur and a spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is sold to a new owner, he’s placed in a barn where he’s snubbed by other farm animals and is left yearning for companionship. The turning point is when he finds a friend in Charlotte.
There are two casts. 17-year-old Abigail Fitzgibbon plays Templeton in the “Radiant” cast. Templeton is a self-serving rat who helps Charlotte and Wilbur in exchange for food. Fitzgibbon said the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte isn’t necessarily a strange one.
Beatrice Perez-Petersen also plays Wilbur in Young Performers Theater’s production of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. (Photo by Clarice Johnson, courtesy of Young Performers Theater)
“I think friendship can arise out of any two people who need something and can find that something in each other,” Fitzgibbon said.
When Wilbur learns he’s intended for slaughter, Charlotte promises to help him by weaving messages praising Wilbur on her web, making him a renowned and valuable pig. Muriel Reid plays Charlotte in the Radiant Cast. She said the story’s focus on the importance of friendship has changed how she sees the theater friends she’s made over the years.
“Recently, me and one of my cas tmates have started this thing where we say, ‘Guess what? I love you.’ Because it’s really important to show that you care for one another,” Reid said.
As Reid sees it, Charlotte is a maternal figure in Wilbur’s life and a source of strength. But in the end – when Charlotte spins an egg sac containing 514 unborn children – she doesn’t tell Wilbur that she’s exhausted. She hides the fact that she’s dying slowly. But Reid sees that as a flaw in Charlotte’s character. She should have opened up to Wilbur in her time of need.
“I think that’s another thing in our society because people aren’t able to talk because they think they’re weak or it will ruin their image,” Reid said. “I think it’s very important to take care of your friends even if it’s tough to do, even if it’s tough to talk about hard things.”
Director Zeke Blackwell agreed that the lessons in Charlotte’s Web are applicable to people of all ages. The mission of the Young Performers Theater is to prepare children for adulthood through performance by teaching them to be compassionate members of society and leaders in community building, he said.
“Sometimes we make these divisions between what is a children’s story and what is an adult story,” Blackwell said. “And we forget that the lessons that we learn as children are still relevant, are still important. We still need to understand as adults what it means to be a good friend, perhaps even more so than when we’re children.”
