Ridgewood Middle School students to perform ‘Annie Jr.’
WEST LAFAYETTE – Ridgewood students are all set to perform the middle school’s first ever musical this week.
“This is a huge deal for us to be able to do,” said Alex Mullen, who directs the play. “Our music people are always so busy with the high school, but things lined up perfectly for us this year.”
The students will perform “Annie Jr.” at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, May 18-19 and at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 20 at Ridgewood High School in the auditorium. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for children and children 3 and under are free.
There are about 75 students from fourth through seventh grade in the production, which tells the story of Annie moving from her orphanage to being adopted by Daddy Warbucks.
“Most of the kids are in the cast,” Mullen said. “About 10 are back stage crew. We were amazed we had that many show up for tryouts.”
Seventh grader Keeley Carter plays Grace Ferrell in Annie Jr.
“She’s a mother figure that Annie grows closer to as the show goes on,” Carter said.
Annie is played by Kya Masloski, a sixth grader at the school.
“I like that she is always finding the bright side of things,” Masloski said about playing Annie. “I like being in plays because you get to be a different person.”
In the play, Brenna Hoffman gets to play a young lady hoping to become a famous singer in New York City.
“This is a really great show and a lot of people have put in a lot of hard work to make it really great,” said the seventh grader.
Mullen agreed with Hoffman.
“We’ve had a lot of behind the scenes help,” he said. “People have made donations, helped with tickets, worked on costumes, just all kinds of little things. Jill Collins (from the high school) is letting us borrow the castle scene from ‘Beauty and the Beast’ to turn into Daddy Warbucks’ mansion and we are borrowing scenes from the Pritchard Laughlin Civic Center in Cambridge, which just did ‘Annie.’”
Kyndall Stocker, another seventh grader in the play, portrays Pepper, a tough 12-year-old orphan who doesn’t want to listen to anyone.
“This had been fun,” Stocker said. “It’s nice to see how we’ve progressed and getting to spend time with friends.”
She also added that Mr. Mullen is the greatest director she’s ever had.
“We wouldn’t be able to do ‘Annie’ though without Jennifer Shanks, music director and Kirstin Slusser, choreographer,” Mullen said. “This play is 75 percent the music director and choreographer and only 25 percent me. There is a lot of singing and dancing. I’m amazed at how fast the kids have learned their lines too. They are awesome and a very entertaining group.”
Category: Education
