Photo by Brianna Dow
In the late 1980s, my parents entered me into an after school theater program at the community center in our small town. Perhaps they thought I would expend my seemingly endless amount of 6-year-old energy in that 60-minute class.
I don’t remember much about the play, an original piece wherein I portrayed an overzealous alien in a rubber mask who got to shout three lines (which I meticulously highlighted and practiced over and over again). A few years later and a thousand miles away, the students of The Alsedek Theatre School at Open Stage are preparing to open the first in-person OSHKids production in two years.
The school started as a Meisner-based program in the late 1980s for adults in the Harrisburg area (around the same time a 6-year-old in Oklahoma was bellowing some lines in a cafetorium), and developed several classes for school-aged students by the early 2000s, one of which being the OSHKids Performance Company (“OSH” being Open Stage of Harrisburg). For almost 20 years, the program thrived with classes involving performance-based learning and creative dramatics, with lessons packed with gameplay, improvisation, movement, voice and character building. At the end of the eight-month-long class, the students performed a play.
Like everything else in the world, that halted in March of 2020.
Two years after the beginning of what the staff sardonically calls, “The Great Intermission,” the kids of The Alsedek Theatre School are preparing to open “Jack and the Giant,” a musical based on the English fairy tale more commonly named “Jack and the Beanstalk.”
The story is over 500 years old but goes something like this: there’s an optimistic (albeit naive) lad—always named “Jack”—who trades his last item of value, his cow, for a handful of beans. The beans, he is promised (by either a soothsayer, mysterious traveler, or even an actual con artist, depending on which version of the folktale you hear) are magic and will bring him great fame and fortune.
“Jack and the Giant” is a fast-paced, charming and colorful version of the story and throws in a singing troll, a dancing cow and something called “Wiggle Waggle.” Some of the students, who range in age from 6 to 13, will be performing in their very first play, while others are returning to the OSHKids program and are eager to get back on stage.
One of the returning students is Sawyer Bowie, who plays the titular Jack, the renowned slayer of giants. Sawyer began with the OSHKids program in 2019, and made his stage debut in the 20th anniversary production of “A Christmas Carol” the same year. Sawyer, who is 11 years old, is excited to bring Jack’s adventure to life. When asked what he loved most about his experiences on stage, he answered thoughtfully: “Expressing myself onstage and letting my personality shine through different characters.”
Sawyer’s mother, Heidi, appreciates the life lessons that the classes give him.
“It gives him a sense of community, especially coming out of COVID,” she said. “He loves it so much, and I feel like him having the ability to play different characters is helping him in life. Helping him to learn to adapt, helping him to learn to be the person that he wants to really be, because he’s able to put himself in someone else’s shoes. So, for me, that means everything. And it’s what lights him up.”
The return of the OSHKids Performance Company marks a huge moment emerging from “The Great Intermission,” and the theater is readying an entire year of youth programming, such as summer classes that include “Frozen KIDS” and Musical Theatre Workshop, as well as a return to OSHKids in the fall with a literary-focused class culminating in a production of “Charlotte’s Web.”
There’s a palpable excitement from the cast of this year’s Performance Company as they work on dance numbers, learn the music, talk about safety when doing fight choreography, and go through the myriad of details that bring a massively challenging show like “Jack and the Giant” together. It’s challenging, of course, but like any theater kid will tell you, they do it because it’s fun.
Sawyer says it best: “It’s good to be back.”
“Jack and the Giant” runs April 7 to 10 at Open Stage, 25 N. Court St., Harrisburg. For more information, and tickets, visit www.openstagehbg.com.
UPCOMING EVENTS AT HARRISBURG’S PROFESSIONAL DOWNTOWN THEATERS
At Gamut Theatre
www.gamuttheatre.org
717-238-4111
TMI Improv
Friday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Doors and bar open 45 minutes prior to the performance.
Tickets are $10
“The Emperor’s New Clothes”
April 13 to 30
Saturdays at 1 p.m.
Group performances available on weekdays.
Tickets are $10.
Gamut’s Young Acting Company presents
“Panchatantra Tales”
By Sean Adams, based on the folks tales from ancient India
In partnership with Rasika School of Dance
April 8 to 10
Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
Doors and bar open one hour prior to performance.
Tickets are “pick your price,” a recommended $38 ticket or discounted ticket prices of $26 or $14
At Open Stage
www.openstagehbg.com
717-232-6736
12th Annual Capital 10-Miler
April 2
9:30 a.m. on City Island
The OSHKids present
April 7 to 9
“Jack and the Giant,” a musical
Black NewsBeat
With Dr. Kimeka Campbell
April 13 and 27 at 8:30 p.m.
The Obstructed View
April 16 at 8 p.m.
NYC Showtune Queen Paige Turner’s
What a Drag!
Saturday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
