JAMESVILLE-DEWITT CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT – Both behind the scenes and out in front, students and adults involved with Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School’s production of “Annie Jr.” bet their bottom dollar that their months of hard work would pay off once the cafetorium curtain was raised.
The standing ovations after every performance were what really sealed the deal, however.
After an in-school performance that took place earlier in the day, that grades 5 and 6 musical had its sold-out opening night Friday, Feb. 2, followed by a performance to a nearly full house the morning of Feb. 3 and then a third show that same Saturday afternoon.
The director and choreographer for J-D’s “Annie Jr.,” Robin Carruthers, said that when the time comes for that first show, she stands back and hands off the production to the students to run with on their own.
“For me the coolest thing is to watch them start from scratch and build it up,” Carruthers said. “At the end, they’re just so proud of what they’ve done and they should be because they really kind of take over.”
She said another aspect that amazes her is the fact that it’s 10, 11 and 12-year-olds running the lighting, coordinating one thing after another backstage and taking the helm at the soundboard, adding that the kids do a “wonderful job” all around.
Based on the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip, the 1977 Broadway musical take on “Annie” featured a book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Martin Charnin, and in 1982 the musical was turned into a feature film.
Set during the Great Depression, the plot follows the titular redheaded girl as she’s invited to leave her New York City orphanage for a stay at the mansion of one Oliver Warbucks. After the billionaire offers a reward for Annie’s parents to come forward, the head of that orphanage, her brother and her brother’s girlfriend hatch a scheme to disguise themselves and claim the money.
From the time of auditions in November, the members of J-D’s cast and crew for “Annie Jr.” had daily rehearsals leading up to the two-day run in order to learn their lines and polish their onstage actions and cues. Carruthers said the young thespians end up realizing that the workload that goes into making anything artistic can be fun at the same time.
“They always put in their heart and soul,” said Carruthers, a music teacher at the middle school on Randall Road for grades five through eight.
Maria Koster, the resident producer for the middle school’s musicals and a teacher of social studies and English there, said it was “great to see the kids shine” and that “they sang their hearts out.”
Koster mentioned that the school’s technology teachers, others from the arts and music department at the school, a library assistant adept at sewing, about two dozen parents and some grandparents lent their support to the production along the way as well.
Sponsored by the middle school’s parent-teacher group, the musical also made use of an antique wheelchair, a laundry cart and other set pieces provided by Syracuse Children’s Theatre, which had put on “Annie” on several occasions in the past.
Notably, the musical presented on Feb. 2 and 3 marked the debut of a brand new sound system for the middle school made possible due to Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter’s help securing a grant-in-aid request.
The middle school will carry on with the staging of its grades 7 and 8 musical, “Matilda Jr.,” in the Osborn Auditorium at the district high school on Edinger Drive.
The first performance of that musical will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 8, and then there will be a matinee at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 9.
Its director and choreographer, Justin Bird, is a music teacher at JDMS for the seventh and eighth grades.
He said the upcoming production is a “true ensemble show” in the sense that those non-speaking roles have a constant, noticeable presence through the dance numbers instead of being relegated to the background.
Bird said he also likes that the middle school kids have a chance to shift to the high school and mingle with a crew of older students for the two-day run and the two weeks of preparation beforehand after time spent rehearsing in their own building.
Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel “Matilda” became a film in 1996 directed by and starring Danny DeVito, and in 2010 it hit the theatrical stage with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and a book by Dennis Kelly. In 2022, the source material was turned into a musical film.
The plot follows an intelligent young girl shunned by her parents and treated with disdain by her headmistress. In addition to developing telekinetic powers, that title character later develops a friendship with her teacher Miss Honey.
J-D’s auditions for the comedic musical took place in December, and ever since, the process of putting together the show has been a “meaningful” and “upbeat” opportunity for team building, Bird said.
“Everyone is integral and committed, and we’re all in it together,” he said. “They come in ready to work, we rehearse for two hours after school every day, and the speed with which we’ve been able to get through this big show is incredible to me.”
Bird said the entire cast has picked up the choreography faster than he could have expected, assuming it might have something to do with them being part of the generation coming up with Tik Tok and all of that app’s dancing tutorials.
He added that the experience reveals the bigger J-D family that extends from school to school within the district. Also, it gives the middle schoolers an early familiarity with the high school before they move up to that setting as performers, he said.
Like J-D’s production of “Annie,” “Matilda” involves about 75 students between the cast, crew, instrumentalists and set constructors.
In the case of both musicals, the lead character is a young girl with “spunk” who doesn’t have a solid parent figure but is able to take on the world and find guidance elsewhere—a connection Bird said was unplanned and realized only after the two musicals were already chosen.
“Annie is great because kids know it, parents know it, and it’s been around for generations, and now Matilda is kind of starting to feel like that too,” Bird said. He said that the release of the 2022 film version has helped to put the story of “Matilda” back into public consciousness.
The word “Jr.” is tacked onto the titles of J-D’s 2024 musicals because the dialogue is slightly pared down to be more succinct, every part is made fully age-appropriate, and the performances are truncated to an approximately hour-long form by the publishing company Music Theatre International.