Footlighters Children's Theatre
"Once on This Island"
December, 2004
 The
Footlighters Children's Theatre, an artistic and educational production of the
Des Plaines Park District, performed a production of the Broadway musical stage
play, Once on This Island. Scottie played lead role.
Scenes called for
presence of a bird, which was originally planned in this production as a prop. Late in
production and rehearsal, the production staff determined the prop would not be effective enough,
and there were problems with animation and movement. A live bird would be
the only way to make the scenes come alive and be
realistic.
At the request of the young actors, Scottie was contacted by the
adult production team and happily took on the role. With only 1 week and 2
rehearsals remaining before opening night, Scottie was able to learn his part,
which involved being handled by and taking commands from one of the leads and
dancing on his perch to one of the musical numbers.
A behind-the-scenes note: Due to the short rehearsal that
Scottie had, his first 2 performances was partially ad-libbed. A small
radio was concealed in his perch, and he received vocal commands from behind
stage so he would know exactly when in the scene and into the musical number he
was to begin dancing. By the third performance, he had figured it out and
the radio was removed.
Shown below are still frames from the play's video and a newspaper photo and caption.
The play ran for 2 weekends in December,
2004 with a total of 4 performances.
  
 
From page 5 of the November 26, 2004 edition of The Journal
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