CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Kids can learn from Alexander's 'Bad Day'

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Abby Waldron can relate to the lead character she plays in the Theatre Factory KidWorks' production of 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.'
The musical is based on the popular children's book by Judith Viorst, who also wrote the stage adaptation. The story is about a young boy who experiences a day in which everything goes wrong."

5 comments:

mrstein said...

Wow everything is being turned into a musical. I read this book when i was 8. I am not really sure what demographic this show could apply to besides kids under the age of 10 and their parents, but i guess family friendly musicals are becoming harder and harder to find. I do always love hearing about actresses playing young boys, a tradition existing for years in theatre. What could be more of an exciting challenge for an actor than to play the opposite gender. Not only play the opposite gender, but convince an audience you are a young boy and not a fully grown woman pretending to be a boy. Good luck to the actress in this production.

CBrekka said...

I used to act, and I had the most fun by FAR playing male roles. I don't know what it was, but the guy parts always seemed to be more interesting and challenging than playing a princess or something. I also get this feeling that little girls are more fearless. I remember in 5th grade my class wrote our own version of the Odyssey and when we were auditioning for it, I was cast as the Cyclops because none of the guys could sound scary enough. I had the best time EVER stomping around on stage with a paper-mache one eyed head. I think playing an opposite sex role gives you the ultimate freedom to really push the character as far as possible.

Sonia said...

This is a great story for children to get children interested in the theatre and to give them something to relate to, instead of something incredibly commercialized like Spiderman. Also the fact that it ends with a postive note telling kids there is always another day. I think its cute that the actor playing Alwxander is a girl, because that happens quite often. Back home, in the summer theatre program there was a girl who always had those patent young boy roles to herself, and was so excited she finally got the chance to play a girl. Because the actor is right in that it is a completely new set of mannerisms and actions to master.

Anonymous said...

Um, I absolutely love this. I loved this book when I was younger, and I can't believe there's a stage adaptation! I'm all for this, particularly because I just really love the book, and it's fairly relatable to my life as well, but that's just my personal opinion. As for the girl playing the boy, I can also relate to the confusion. I played a guy my sophomore year, and it was one of the weirdest acting experiences for me, so I always like to see what other people do with it. I recently saw Hansel and Gretel at the Metropolitan Opera, and the singer playing Hansel was also a woman, (obviously because Hansel is only a boy and would not have a low singing voice). Still, as I'm not an opera person, it came as a surprise to me. I would love to see this production for the acting, as well as the story, (which, if you haven't read the book, is really adorable).

S. Kael said...

I really like the idea of turning this book into a play, with little kids as each of the elements of Alexander's bad day. For a young actress, having the role of a boy must have been a hilarious, and hopefully educational, experience that she'll take with her for years to come.

Though I'm sure someone would argue that this is sort of a pointless show, its a cute way to encourage children to stay positive and not dote on the silly, transient things in life.