A twist on a tale as old as time

The entryway of the Smith Mills Christian Congregational Church was bustling Thursday, Oct. 24 as dozens of kids prepared to step into the fictional streets of France.

Parent volunteers created teacups out of laundry baskets as costume designers explained to a girl how they could alter her costume to account for a cast on her arm.

In the church’s hall, some kids learned a dance while others in a nearby room rehearsed songs.

All is in preparation for when Take a Bow, a junior theater group for kids in second through eighth grade, presents “Beauty and the Beast Junior.”

“Beauty and the Beast Junior” has a lot of songs that are familiar to kids and since a lot of the members are young, they thought it would be a fun musical for the growing program, said co-director and founder Marianne Oien.

Since the beginning of September, the actors have had rehearsals every Thursday evening, and because of a tighter than usual schedule, there are occasionally weekend rehearsals as well.

“It’s a little bit challenging, especially with so many kids, but it’s going pretty well,” Oien said.

Grayson Gildae, 9, is playing LeFou and auditioned for the part after his mom saw an announcement for the musical online and mentioned it to him.

“I was like, ‘Can I do it?’ and she was like, ‘Yeah, it’s Beauty and the Beast,’ and I was like, ‘Sign me up right now,’” he said.

Take a Bow usually announces the upcoming play on Facebook then holds a workshop to prepare for auditions. After the auditions they occasionally make callbacks if it’s hard to choose who will get a part, according to Maya Gouveia Furtado, 13, who has been in four Take a Bow productions.

Gouveia Furtado, who is playing Lumiere, said that when she’s performing it feels less like a performance and more that she is the character.

“You are them on stage, and you just feel all the emotions they do in the moment. You feel their sadness. You feel their happiness. You feel their excitement,” she said.

The actors playing Beast, Gaston, Cogsworth and Lumiere have all performed in multiple shows at Take a Bow.

“Sometimes before the play … we kind of plan out the cast, like who we think is going to get [each role] and we kind of got it right,” said Giuliana Gioni, 12, who is playing Cogsworth.

“Beauty and the Beast Junior” will be Gioni’s fourth production with Take a Bow.

“My mom was like, ‘You sure you want to keep doing this?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, because I really like it,’” she said. “It’s finally something that I’m into because I don’t do sports or anything — I wasn’t into that.”

Eleanor LaBrode, 13, who is playing Belle, joined Take a Bow this year specifically for “Beauty and the Beast Junior.”

“It’s fun to be in everything and get a feel for everything and just be in the village [and] the castle,” she said.

LaBrode, who said she’s been doing theater since she was six-years-old, has known “forever” that it’s something she wants to do “for the rest of my life.”

“Beauty and the Beast Junior” is an abridged version of the classic Beauty and the Beast. Some of the dialogue is shortened, some of the scenes are cut down and some of the songs are abridged, but the plot is the same.

The musical will also feature the song Evermore from the live action version of Beauty and the Beast, which is sung by the Beast, because Charlie Long, 12, who is playing Beast, wanted to sing it.

“When I’m doing a play I try my version of the character and not exactly copy what they did in the movie or play,” Long said. “It’s really fun to show my version and change it a little and just have some fun.”

“Every play you always get that one chance to make your character stand out from the other people who have played that same character,” said  Julian Lazaro, 12, who is playing Gaston.

For many of the senior cast members, being in Take a Bow and acting in the show is greater than them simply having fun together.

“The little kids look up to us because we’re older,” Gioni said. “They look up to us and [can think] like, ‘Oh, that’s what I want to do when I grow up.”

LeFou is Gaston’s “sidekick,” Lazaro said, adding that he spends a lot of time with Gildae.

“He’s kind of like the little brother I never had,” Lazaro said.

The cast members also see themselves as an inspiration to the kids watching the show.

“It’s mostly little kids in the audience … so they see kids older than them or younger than them putting it on … and then they know that one day they can play that character that they either idolize or something,” Long said. 

The youngest member of the main cast agreed, despite his limited experience.

“I want to like almost inspire people,” Gildae said. “I want when I go up onstage I want kids to say, ‘Oh, I want to do that one day.’”

See “Beauty and the Beast Junior” at the Westport High School, located at 400 Old County Road, Westport, Friday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 23 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.