Thursday, April 19, 2012

Ellie McDoodle -- live and in person!

Charlie and I had the FABULOUS opportunity to meet Ellie McDoodle, Mo, Ben-Ben, Josh, Lucy, Mr. Brendall, and many other Ellie McDoodle characters yesterday when we popped in to surprise the performers during the Tech Week rehearsal for the stage play at Binda Performing Arts Center on Kellogg Community College's campus.
It was a thrill to see the characters alive on stage.
I'm so excited about the performance this Saturday.
If you're near Battle Creek, Michigan, come by and see it!
Two performances Saturday April 21, 4pm and 7pm.
Click here for all the official information for it or scroll down to the end of this post.
Thank you SO much to Miller College Children's Theater Project and Jenny Andrews for making this happen.
Thank you to the excellent script writer, Jack Wentworth.
Thank you to the fabulous What A Do Theatre and Zac Thompson for directing and managing the play.
And thank you to the performers and their families for making time in their busy schedules to take advantage of an opportunity to experience professional theater, with all its demands and rewards.

The best part of it all? The next Ellie McDoodle book, which I am writing right NOW, is about theater. This production is great inspiration and research!


Here are the performers for Ellie McDoodle: New Kid in School
Adapted for stage by Lakeview High School student Jack Wentworth
Directed by Zac Thompson.

Cast List

Ellie McDoodle...........Anna Harrel
Mom / Whittam...........Ghevon Sebastian
Dad / Brendall...........Anahita Suifollahi
Josh...........Derek Whitesell
Risa...........Kailen Roop
BenBen...........Kessy Cook
Travis...........Avery Beck
Lucy...........Kylie Ohrt
Mo...........Cassandra Galonsky
Marla...........Ariana Saifollahi
Zoe...........Tyree Jones
Sammy...........Kelea Gaskins
Joey...........Naomi Todd
Alex...........Taren Todd
Lisa...........Bailee Goff
Sarah...........Hannah Slayton



The performance will be held at the Binda Performing Arts Center on Kellogg Community College's campus on Saturday, April 21, 2012, at 4:00 and 7:00 p.m. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling Jenny Andrews at (269) 967-1374 or at the door prior to each performance.  Adult tickets are $8.00; students K-12 $4.00; children 5 and under are free.

4 comments:

Natalie Aguirre said...

This is so awesome Ruth! Congrats! Wish I could go. Have fun.

Buffy said...

Very cool Ruth, and I wish we were going to be in town to see the play (going to Ohio to see Emma since she did not come home for spring break.) But I'll look forward to hearing a full report!

Unknown said...

Hi Ruth! Last year you visited my daughter's school in Jackson, Michigan (Sophie is my daughter and she sent you an email asking you to come because she LOVES your books!). I'm contacting you because Sophie moved to the middle school in the fall and they have no library. A group of us (parents, teachers, community members) are working to remedy this situation. I wanted to invite you to check out our online donation link, which will also give you more information about the project: http://parkside.jpsk12.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ozqn4Zma0i8%3d&tabid=486

If you can give, great, if you can spread the word, fantastic! We need to keep libraries in our schools alive and thriving - 1/3 of the students at Soph's school never visit a library...NEVER! OY!!!

Ruth McNally Barshaw said...

Yikes, Heather! I didn't see this note earlier. I will help spread the word. Thanks so much for writing.