Annie Jr.

One of the great delights of my job is having the pleasure of watching young actors begin their stage careers and seeing them develop into mature and competent performers. This show by Make Your Mark, jointly directed by Mrs. Farnsworth, Mr. McKenzie, Mrs. Purcell and Ms. Day was a classic example of such talent destined to do just that.

The stage at Mark Rutherford school is absolutely huge, because whoever designed the layout had the very clever idea of putting it lengthways down the hall rather than the traditional, across the width! Gives perfect audience sightlines and plenty of space for an inevitably, very large, school cast. Other societies take note! For this production that was pretty much essential as the hired in set was itself enormous, consisting of a series of tall triangular trucks, each side of which depicted a different part of a scene, which jig sawed together to complete each individual scene, which were then very expertly moved around by the very well organised stage crew, Managed by Jess O’Brien and Mr. Doughty. Then several stunning backcloths completed each scene. But best of all was the sumptuous hallway and staircase depicting Oliver Warbucks’ mansion. So well done to Rhniem Asfahani, Lily Birch, Harry Brocklehurst, Enya Hough, Izzy Jakes, Madison Luck, Elijah Oryem, Izzy Prontefract, Katie Schaffer, Lucas Sinkevicius, Jamie Worrall and Taraji Frempong. Great jobs guys!

Lighting and sound were designed and operated by Miss. Ellson and Mr. McKenzie. Apart from a couple of problems with mics all operated faultlessly.

The excellent hair and makeup were by Cleo Harcombe and Sydney McGrath and the many changes of costumes in this huge cast were very well coordinated by Mrs. Wells and Ms. Day with a lot of input from the cast themselves.

Choreography of a large cast is never easy, but Mrs. Wells, Mrs. Talbot and Mrs. Taylor made it look so, with some well-coordinated routines, which made for some wonderfully visual numbers to the sequenced music.

The remarkable thing about this show was that several of the actors were playing their first ever parts in their first ever show, including Anna Carter as ‘Annie’ and Marlon Guhwa as ‘Oliver Warbucks.’ So, this performance was their first ever appearance on stage in front of an audience. And a full house as well! That’s quite daunting to take on a lead role as your first taste of acting, especially as in Anna’s case she had to carry the show! So, what a remarkable job they did! Confident and self-assured. A great start on their journey into theatre. Anna Carter certainly has a lovely voice and can hold a note as she amply demonstrated in several numbers. Marlon Guhwa may have had a mic problem as his volume was unfortunately low, which was a shame as he does have the makings of a good singer.

Angelina Guarino as the harridan, Miss Hannigan gave us a very forceful performance, striding on to the stage to stop Annie escaping and making her presence, as well as her dislike of the orphans felt.  

Prince Ndungu as ‘Rooster,’ Miss Hannigan’s brother and Kenton Bennett as his girlfriend ‘Lily’ were a good team as the couple attempting to swindle $50,000, and did a great job of ‘Easy Street, which despite the name is not an easy song.   And Harry Farnsworth took on Radio Personality Bert Healy, for Annie’s appeal for her parents. Lydia Edwards played ‘Grace Farrell’ with great presence and conviction as Warbucks’ PA and in her empathy with Annie. And Samuel Field made a great Franklin D Roosevelt as well as taking on the part of ‘Bundles.’

Other cameos from Ayanda Ngwenya (Molly), Amy Woodhead (Kate), Thea Alessi (Tessie), Fatima Jabbi (Pepper), Kyla Edwards (July), Jessica Honeybourne (Apple Seller), , Samantha Phillips (Officer Ward & Star to be), Savanna Carter (Drake), Nelly Fabianek (Cecille), Patrycja Jasinska (Annette), Sofia Mahwing  (Mrs Greer), Unathi Mazithulela (Mrs Pugh), Sienna McLeod (Usherette) and Eliora Dunu (Louis Howe). Finally, a word about Sandy, the loveably dog Annie adopts, clearly with such expert handling by Rosalie Picariello, a star in the making and even managing to join in with a rendition of ‘Tomorrow!’ He was created especially for the show by Rhniem Asfahani, Izzy Pontefract and Ms. Saunders. Great job!

The major problem of this show was the timing of entrances, which were often delayed causing a problem in starting the scene which affected the pace. I put that down to inexperience, but there was unfortunately one scene where a character obviously either forget to come on, or there was a problem backstage, and it left those on stage stranded. However, to their credit and with no previous experience they covered it by having a mimed conversation whilst reading some papers. Superbly intelligent, instinctive thinking! Well covered!

All in all, a great show for this young cast showing their potential, a lot of them for the first time. If I can offer my usual piece of advice, pick up your cues quickly and slow your speeches down a little bit. But, no doubt that will come with practice as they continue on their theatrical journeys. Keep up the good work Make Your Mark, always a pleasure to visit and see how you are developing.

Finally, many thanks to Alex McKenzie and the FOH staff for their kind hospitality.

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