Frozen Kids

What a treat it was to be invited to watch Darlington Academy of Performing Arts younger students put on a magical and sparkling production of Frozen Kids.

The perfect production for them with a shortened version of the Disney Classic packing just the right amount of content and musical numbers in whilst ensuring the concentration and focus didn’t drift. The hour- long performance was packed with energy and the most amazing smiles really conveying just how much fun this group was having.

The huge cast with the oldest members being just 8yrs old really put on a great show and what a lovely introduction to musical theatre provided to them by the Directors Joanne and Paul Mason. 

Movement and stage direction had a good flow to it yet kept to a minimum level allowing the performers to feel confident in themselves. The teamwork I witnessed was lovely with everyone on stage looking out for each other and helping one another out.

With this being a shortened version of the musical, Storytellers are used to keep us on track with the plot and Rose Read, Nadia Kinanu, Betty Thompson and Mia-Lake Mackenzie did a really good job delivering the story with warmth and enthusiasm.

The big ensemble numbers were packed with volume and life, with the Infants Snow Chorus joining in from the audience with many of the numbers. The Snowman T-shirts kept a brilliant universal look. There was some good choreography in these numbers, Fixer Upper in particular worked really well with the woodland themed costumes matching some lovely wiggling and jiggling in the song.

This wasn’t just a chance for these Juniors to get on stage and smile, there really was a lot of work behind the production. The lighting was slick with great colour and mood lighting changing the scenes and avoiding the need for clumpy scene changes. The costuming was excellent with everyone dressed as the iconic characters and it even managed a slick quick change for Elsa in Let It Go. A few key pieces of wheeled on set helped to create the Magical illusions in the story. Overall it was kept as a beautiful crisp and winter wonderland backdrop allowing the focus to be on the performers.

The Saturday cast that I watched was really packed with some great individual performances in Major and Minor roles.

Minor characters really kept to their characters: The Bishop, Imogen Gray; The King and Queen played by Ayla Duman and Ava-Rose Stott and Weselton played by Penelope Bowlby all really delivering some lovely characterisations. Their lines were well delivered and showed some lovely stage control.

Pabbie and Bulda were played by Angela Thomas and Aspen Sawyer and this double act were great to watch, their beaming smiles almost as cheeky as the comic delivery of their lines.

Despite coming into the story late on Alexandra Cumming as Kristoff and Emilie Pittwood as Sven made a great impact. Again for performers so young their delivery of lines and character was perfect for the roles.

If there is a character everyone loves in Frozen it has to be Olaf and Ada Ironside was fab in the role, showing true warmth in her character and dressed to perfection she grabbed her spotlight with a very sweet vocal in “In Summer”.

With the Frozen story racing through time the Musical uses three sets of our leading ladies and what a fab job these 6 girls all did. Our Young Elsa and Anna were played by Eleanor McNeilly and Eleanor Tyrell and they play a huge part in the Kids version. Both girls were lovely to watch, beaming with confidence and huge smiles and delivering some really lovely vocals in A Little Bit of You with Eleanor Tyreel then teaming up with Middle Anna, Evie Johns in Do You Wanna Build a Snowman. Again a lovely version of this classic Disney number. Isabella Honeyman joined the girls as Middle Elsa and showed real control of the character as she battled with her powers and insecurities.

Trying to take over Arendelle and the true baddy of the story belonged to our wonderful villain Hans played excellently by Robyn Waterfield. To me, the acting performance of the night. Robyn not only delivered each line with purpose and meaning but really owned the stage in each scene. Actors are encouraged to only move with a meaning or with a reason and this very young performer managed to deliver this. Really impressive for someone so young and a future star on stage.

Our Anna was played by Violet Evans and what a gorgeous role she played. She gave us vulnerability and a soft side to the younger sister whilst also keeping a really cheeky edge. Her quieter and softer side was a lovely contrast to the now grown up and feisty Elsa delivered perfectly by Daisie Jenkinson. Again giving great stage presence for a girl so young shows great commitment and quality in the performance. Her movements were slick, line delivery clear and concise and I must finish on what was a quite brilliant delivery of Let It Go. She hit every note perfectly, had lovely meaning in the lyrics and controlled the power when required whilst allowing herself to really Let It Go after her quick change. I was really impressed and hope to see much more of this future star in more performances over the years.

What was lovely was to see a true family of young performers having the time of their lives. I honestly loved every piece of this. You can’t compare it to larger scale shows with Older Teens and actors but what it represents is the future of Theatre and hopefully everyone on that stage tonight will gain confidence and also remember the friendships they built during this time.

Great credit must be given to The Production team for having the confidence to put on a full production with just the Mini-members of the Academy and it is great to see the Academy’s older members leading the show backstage with stage Managers Ella Wallace, Isabelle Metcalfe and Rohan Kerr in full control. Liam Pattison again was in the technical box overseeing the lights and sound. Junior assistant and Leaders Amber Wraith, Camryn Mason, Phoebe Carr, Isla Scott and Sophie Pickup not only heavily involved tonight but also during the rehearsal process.

A huge well done to everyone involved, I can’t wait to come and see more of these Junior shows as I am sure in years to come these performers will be leads in your full scale productions. 

 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.