Photo by Scott P. Dunn
Spaulding School kindergarteners enjoy a snack and meet and greet with the little mermaid Ariel, played by Jaime Pearsons, at a recent field trip to the Red Door Theatre.
The Red Door Theatre in Feeding Hills, Mass., is celebrating its 25th year. Spaulding Kindergarten students have been visiting the theatre for 20 of those years to see a play and meet and greet the actors while enjoying their snack.
This year the production was an adaptation of “The Little Mermaid”. Some students were chosen to put on costumes and join the actors on stage as mermaids, Lords and Ladies and even Ariel’s fish friends. Ariel played by Jaime Pearsons, a former Spaulding student, now works as a para professional in the system. Her father Lyle Pearsons, who played the part of King Neptune, taught first and second grades at the school before leaving to start the community theatre 25 years ago.
The plays are audience participatory and involve everyone in the seats by having them make hand motions like the waves of the sea, sing songs and help create sound effects like the wind and thunder. Following the play the children are invited to join the actors on the lawn outside the theatre where they are provided juice and popcorn and have an opportunity to talk with the actors. The most popular question this year was how did they make the fish swim in Ariel’s grotto. The blacklight scene fascinated the students where puppet fish swam magically around the glowing treasure that Ariel had stored among the dayglow painted, coral scenery.
The actors stay with the children to wave a final goodbye as they depart on buses to go back to school. They leave with color sheets that give information on all the other plays musicals and theatre camps that the popular, award winning theatre has to offer. This summer 225 children will attend the sold out theater camps, many of them from the Suffield schools where they first saw a play at the Red Door back in Kindergarten. For more information on upcoming productions go to reddoortheatre.com.