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Directed by Lizzie Talbot
April 26-28, 2018 BRS 7:30 This delightful stage adaptation combines all the joy and mystery of Kenneth Grahame’s much-loved classic with the lightness of touch and playful theatricality that award-winning playwright Mike Kenny is known for. Tired of spring-cleaning, Mole leaves Mole End and ventures out to the riverbank, where he befriends the resourceful Ratty, the gruff Badger and the infamous Toad of Toad Hall (Poop-poop!). Together they explore the Wide World, and the Wild Wood, and try to keep Toad out of trouble…! |
Cast List
Production Meeting
Due to illness all the way around, Lizzie and I didn't get around to having our first meeting until March 19th. Annie and Jamal have quit the show since this was posted and Jonah Hardt has been added to the cast. China Spring high school student, Lindsey Fox, was added to replace Annie. After the opera closes there will be exactly two weeks to work on it.
Sami Helmick is designing makeup for the show. Lizzie wants the characters to be mostly human, less animal in a 70/30 ratio. She wants tails rather than ears, for everyone to have a base costume that they just add pieces to for changing the chorus from rabbits to weasels. She wants muted, earthy tones for the color pallete like greens, browns, and greys. She wants them in sturdy shoes rather than dance shoes. She wants the audience to feel that the production is magical and sweet.
4/9/18 So now that the opera has opened we have exactly two weeks two put this show together. We started pulling costumes today and did fittings on Toad. I hope to keep pulling everything we need this week and start fittings next week. First dress is Monday April 23.
Sami Helmick is designing makeup for the show. Lizzie wants the characters to be mostly human, less animal in a 70/30 ratio. She wants tails rather than ears, for everyone to have a base costume that they just add pieces to for changing the chorus from rabbits to weasels. She wants muted, earthy tones for the color pallete like greens, browns, and greys. She wants them in sturdy shoes rather than dance shoes. She wants the audience to feel that the production is magical and sweet.
4/9/18 So now that the opera has opened we have exactly two weeks two put this show together. We started pulling costumes today and did fittings on Toad. I hope to keep pulling everything we need this week and start fittings next week. First dress is Monday April 23.
Costume ideas
Process
We had nothing in storage that would fit our Badger, so Amazon Prime provided the goods. I also ordered glasses for Mole. Then I was told how much money I could spend on the show and I went to town ordered more things. Here are some of them below. Everything is coming from Amazon Prime and will be here between Sunday and Wednesday of next week.
Costume fittings
We had our first round of costume fittings this afternoon and it was barely controlled chaos! Here are some photos I took for fun to help me remember what we'd done.
Build process
We still have two matching vest and pants suits to make for Toad. The green diamond pattern fabric will be for his first costume and the yellow checks will be for the tweeds he borrows from Rat. Badger needed a nightcap for his first scene to go with the pajamas and robe I ordered, so I made that last night. We also have several ears and tails sets to make for Albert, and who knows who else. This show has just gotten exponentially bigger than I anticipated. I guess that's why I always end up going in to work on the weekends, whenever we do shows with animals in. Saturday I worked from 7-10:30 and Sunday I worked from 10-3. I got two pairs of pants made and the vest pattern done. We just need Toad to come in for a fitting now.
Expenses
Toad costumes $55.83
Badger costume items $186.90
Mole sunglasses $11.00
Toad top hat $23.99
Mole costume items $32.98
Hats $ 39.98
Ears, tails, goggles $123.98
Miscellaneous Accessories $342.93
Dry cleaning $99.75
Total Spent $916.96
Badger costume items $186.90
Mole sunglasses $11.00
Toad top hat $23.99
Mole costume items $32.98
Hats $ 39.98
Ears, tails, goggles $123.98
Miscellaneous Accessories $342.93
Dry cleaning $99.75
Total Spent $916.96
Production Photos
Waco Tribune-herald April 26, 2018
Rat (Garland Petterson, left) and Mole (Colten Haliburton, right) contemplate how to save Toad (Brandon Leal) from his excesses in The Wind In The Willows.
Staff photo — Jerry Larson
Staff photo — Jerry Larson
McLennan Theatre goes outdoor
for Wind in the Willows
By Carl Hoover
McLennan Theatre will stage its production of The Wind In The Willows on the banks of the Bosque River this weekend, but the river setting is meant more for atmosphere than reenactment.
While actual toads and rats may live in the brush along the banks, badgers, moles and weasels aren’t likely inhabitants and certainly not ones wearing tweed or vests. And Bosque toads certainly don’t recklessly drive motorcars.
The very English animals of Kenneth Grahame’s familiar 1908 children’s book The Wind In The Willows do, however, and they’re the ones populating the action of the production opening Thursday night at MCC’s Bosque River Stage.
The MCC production uses Alan Bennett’s 1991 adaptation, one more droll than Disney and with much of Grahame’s English humor kept intact. “It’s actually very witty,” said Kelly Parker, who’s co-directing the play with MCC theater faculty colleague Elizabeth Talbot. “There’s a quirky adult humor here.”
While that sort of humor lies in wordplay and cultural commentary, characters’ personalities and situational humor provide many of the laughs for kids. The BRS’ riparian setting emphasizes the play’s natural setting, but costuming suggests animals through caps and hats rather than realistic representations and props such as a car and train rely on the viewers’ imagination, Parker said.
The storyline involves Mole (Colten Haliburton), an introvert who ventures out of his hole to explore the river nearby. On the way, he encounters the cultured and resourceful Rat (Garland Peterson), who introduces him to the river. The two eventually run into the boundary-pushing Toad (Brandon Leal), whose enthusiasm is in inverse proportion to his attention span.
Toad’s love for speed and his inability to set limits when he’s in motion put him on a collision course with the law, requiring Mole and Rat to call for outside assistance from gruff Badger (Randy Dockendorf). While Toad is occupied with the law, weasels from the Wild Wood take over his Toad Hall, forcing him and his friends to plot their overthrow.
The animal friends return to their homes with a broader sense of the world outside, but an appreciation of living in moderation.
“It’s a little bit of adventure, a lot of self-discovery,” Parker said.
McLennan Theatre will stage its production of The Wind In The Willows on the banks of the Bosque River this weekend, but the river setting is meant more for atmosphere than reenactment.
While actual toads and rats may live in the brush along the banks, badgers, moles and weasels aren’t likely inhabitants and certainly not ones wearing tweed or vests. And Bosque toads certainly don’t recklessly drive motorcars.
The very English animals of Kenneth Grahame’s familiar 1908 children’s book The Wind In The Willows do, however, and they’re the ones populating the action of the production opening Thursday night at MCC’s Bosque River Stage.
The MCC production uses Alan Bennett’s 1991 adaptation, one more droll than Disney and with much of Grahame’s English humor kept intact. “It’s actually very witty,” said Kelly Parker, who’s co-directing the play with MCC theater faculty colleague Elizabeth Talbot. “There’s a quirky adult humor here.”
While that sort of humor lies in wordplay and cultural commentary, characters’ personalities and situational humor provide many of the laughs for kids. The BRS’ riparian setting emphasizes the play’s natural setting, but costuming suggests animals through caps and hats rather than realistic representations and props such as a car and train rely on the viewers’ imagination, Parker said.
The storyline involves Mole (Colten Haliburton), an introvert who ventures out of his hole to explore the river nearby. On the way, he encounters the cultured and resourceful Rat (Garland Peterson), who introduces him to the river. The two eventually run into the boundary-pushing Toad (Brandon Leal), whose enthusiasm is in inverse proportion to his attention span.
Toad’s love for speed and his inability to set limits when he’s in motion put him on a collision course with the law, requiring Mole and Rat to call for outside assistance from gruff Badger (Randy Dockendorf). While Toad is occupied with the law, weasels from the Wild Wood take over his Toad Hall, forcing him and his friends to plot their overthrow.
The animal friends return to their homes with a broader sense of the world outside, but an appreciation of living in moderation.
“It’s a little bit of adventure, a lot of self-discovery,” Parker said.