The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Plays showcase talents of youngest kids

Taste of Mason serves up diversity
5:51 p.m.
List of Grammy winners in select major categories
12:28 p.m.
‘Spelling Bee’ musical onstage next weekend
2/5/12
Satchel Paige play joins Black History Month lineup
2/5/12
Arts sampler grows to 3 Saturdays
2/5/12
> More headlines

Katelyn Halsey, Grace Lampert, Sander Gerzema, and Avery Tula of the Middeltown Performing Arts Center rehearse for The Lost Mittens at the Old Monroe High School Monday evening, March 15, 2010. The play will be showing March 21 at 4:30pm. Tickets cost $5 and are available at the door.

By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer Updated 6:21 PM Friday, March 19, 2010

MONROE — The Middletown Performing Arts Academy gives its youngest players their moment in the spotlight this weekend via a pair of plays: “The Lost Mitten” and “A Froggy Day in Lindentown.”

Both shows are the culmination of several weeks of classes. “The Lost Mitten,” featuring 11 children aged 4 to 5, plays at  4:30 p.m. Sunday at the former Lemon-Monroe High School, now known as the Greentree Health Science Academy, at 101 W. Elm Street in Monroe.

“The Lost Mitten” is a Ukrainian folk tale in which the forest animals become friends as each escapes the bitter cold by finding warmth inside a lost mitten.

“A Froggy Day in Lindentown,” featuring 26 kids in kindergarten through third grade, follows at 5:30 p.m. at the same location. That play shows what happens when a bullfrog turns out to be a bully, bossing around several swamp creatures.

The actors in “The Lost Mitten” are young, but are still able to work in simple theater, Director Dawn Cooke said.

“They’re cute. The neat thing is they’re so eager to learn and they get so excited, but they’re also unfocused,” director Cooke said. “Their attention span is about half a second. Most of them have one line, and it’s the same line: ‘It’s cold here. Can I share the mitten, too?’ ”

Much of the story in the  20-minute play is told through songs and repetition of lines, so the kids have an easier time grasping the very basics of theater, she explained.

“Froggy Day,” by contrast, is a bit more advanced, with several speaking parts and longer speeches. Many of the lines rhyme, Dr. Seuss-style, and are filled with puns, to wit: “All in all, it was a ribbetting experience.”

Emmalee Paarlberg, 8, of Madison Twp., who plays one of those tadpoles, said she’s already looking forward to wrapping up the show.

“I like at the end how you get congratulations. It makes me feel proud,” she said.

Tickets will be available at the door the night of the show. For more information, call (513) 594-7242.