Dorothy Gale from Kansas

Alexis was my Sally Brown. She was my risk. She was my little underdog who completely shined. Alexis was in A Christmas Carol here at the Carver this past December and was so sweet, but so quiet and reserved. When she came to audition for The Wizard of Oz, I expected that same quiet spirit. She came in with her short brown hair, cute little glasses and wearing shorts and a t-shirt, looking just like the Alexis we had in A Christmas Carol. But when she read for Dorothy, something came out that I wasn't expecting at all. She got it. She understood the lines. She knew the inflection and the tone of voice in them and regardless of what her face was doing, her precious little voice was just Dorothy. There was no way around it. And then she sang, and I was toast...

But Alexis is 9 and I always go through that "Can this tiny little person really handle that big of a part?" We did what I've done many times before and we talked to her mom about it. I know a lot of theatre type people wouldn't recommend that but in situations like this you have to know that the parents are supportive of it and will help them and encourage them through the stress. When we said, "Um...we didn't know Alexis could sing like that," her mom's response was, "Oh yeah, she can sing!" Alexis was hoping to be Glinda. Apparently her mom said, "Honey what if they give you Dorothy?" And her response was, "Oh I can't be Dorothy. My hair's not long enough." It's things like that that make my heart melt for children's theatre...the opportunity to defy these kids expectations and teach them to defy their own. So we gave her the part and her mom did what any good mom would do with a short-haired Dorothy...put a weave in.

Every day we had cute, fun little Alexis running around, but the night of the dress rehearsal, she came around the corner after getting her makeup done and I had a Dorothy. She couldn't stop looking in the mirror at herself. And I loved it. I'm definitely not in the business of encouraging kids to look any different than they are made to look and I absolutely don't want them to grow up any faster than they need to, but I was really grateful to be standing there to see her in one of, if not the first, moment in her life that she realized she is beautiful...the same kid who had cried in my arms a few days before because someone was picking on her for what she looked like.

Alexis is one of the most affectionate people I've ever known. She just has this kindness about her that is so precious. There are two moments I will always remember from this show.

There was one day after rehearsal that I started to walk away from the theatre and she came running after me and said, "Wait Miss Jen you didn't give me a hug!" I walked back to give her a hug, but before I could she stood on her toes, grabbed my face between her hands and just stared at me for a strangely long time. Eventually she pulled my head in toward hers until our foreheads were touching and she just looked in my eyes for a few seconds, pulled her face away, pulled my head down, kissed it and turned and bounced off. I couldn't help but smile because it was just Alexis being Alexis.

The other moment was opening night Friday. All of the kids had been at the theatre all day and rehearsing really hard all week. They were tired to say the very least and while most of them had taken a nap, Alexis and our Wicked Witch had stayed up being little girls, giggling and talking. But the tired hit Alexis hard and about 2 hours before show time she became a total little girl, rubbing her eyes and crying saying she wanted to go home but insisting that it had nothing to do with being sleepy. We went in the dressing room and I finally got her to lay down on the couch and immediately her eyelids got really heavy. I was sitting next to her and all of a sudden her eyes opened really wide and she said, "When I wake up I want you to be here," and she laid her hed in my lap and curled herself around me. I said okay and it was one of those moments where I thought, "I don't have time for this, but it's the most important thing right now." It was the opportunity to learn from all those other moments that I've let slip by before and not take that one for granted.

Alexis did a fabulous job. I knew the kid had become a star when during the dress rehearsal (with an audience of her peers no less) her skirt fell off, all the way, twice, and she giggled. When I looked out on stage and somehow between two hands was managing to hold Toto, a basket, an oil can and her skirt up, I knew we'd turned her into a performer.