About halfway through a school matinee of Salt Lake Acting Company's "A Year With Frog and Toad," a first-grader in the audience let the cast know he had figured out what live theater was all about.
"Hey. You were the monster," he yelled to actor Terry Lee McGriff, who, after a quick costume change, had made his stage entrance as a bird.
The immediacy of that audience reaction explains everything about the professional theater company's enthusiasm for its annual children's musical, now in its sixth year. In addition to evening and weekend performances, the actors perform eight matinees for Title I elementary schools in the Salt Lake City and Granite districts. Those performances reach some 1,400 students, many of whom haven't attended a stage show before.
"It gives us a rush of new energy every December to do this," says co-artistic director Keven Myhre.
With its children's musical, the company partners with nonprofits such as Voices for Utah Children and Intermountain Therapy Animals, whose volunteers introduce their pets in the lobby before performances. In addition, throughout the run, the company is collecting donations for its neighbor, Washington Elementary, whose artwork decorates the theater lobby. (See box for details.)
Before a morning performance last week for the South Kearns and Jackson Elementary schools, assistant producer Shannon Musgrave helped explain the "live" part of live theater.
"Is a play a movie?" she asked.
"No!" came the response.
"Is a play a TV show?"
"No!" the audience responded, this time shouting even louder.
"Because a play is live," Musgrave explained. "There are actors who are going to do their dances and songs in front of you."
In a Q-and-A after the show, one theatergoer asked why the play was funny throughout. Janessa Bowen, who played a mouse and other characters, explained that director Penny Caywood had helped them make their parts work.
Another student asked why the birds made fun of the perky Frog and his worrywart friend, Toad. "I think the birds said sorry later," one of the actors said.
As they filed out of the theater, students expressed their good manners as arts patrons with enthusiastic "thank yous." "I liked it a lot," one first-grader confided to co-artistic director Cynthia Fleming.
"I liked Frog," another said, while her friend, showing her developing skills as an arts critic, disagreed. "I liked the Toad."
"I also read the book," another girl confided, proudly.
My seatmate, a shy, dark-haired 6-year-old with snazzy lighted sneakers, told me she liked the singing best. Her friend, a 7-year-old with beautiful beaded braids, liked the funny song when all the animals were making fun of how funny Toad looks in a swimsuit.
The musical is based on scenes drawn from the beloved books by Arnold Lobel. Commissioned by his daughter, the adaptation by Willie Reale, with his brother Robert Reale's music, played a short Broadway run in 2003.
"The story is the sweetest, tenderest story about a true friendship," says Caywood, the guest director, who in her day job as artistic director of the University of Utah's Youth Theatre program staged the show in 2006. "It's simple and yet sophisticated at the same time, and the music is that way, too."
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Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Terry Lee McGriff, left, and Amelia Rose Moore dance and sing their roles as birds while performing for South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students for the the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Cynthia Fleming, Executive Director for the Salt Lake Acting Company engages students from South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school's in dance before the production of students delight in the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students delight in the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students delight in the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students delight in the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Terry Lee McGriff as snail "speeds" away with the mail as South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students delight in the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune The cast of A Year with Frog and Toad the Musical answer questions from South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students following the production by the Salt Lake Acting Company.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students delight in adding their dance move ideas as Associate Producer Shannon Musgrave learns a move before the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune Amelia Rose Moore, Terry Lee McGriff and Jenessa Bowen, from left, dance and sing their roles as birds while performing for South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students for the the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company.
Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune South Kearns and Jackson Elementary Title 1 school students delight in the production of A Year with Frog And Toad the Musical produced by the Salt Lake Acting Company.