Vacation Theater School Sends Area Students to Candyland

For its annual February school vacation theater workshop, staged Candyland, an original play written by Angela Merril, the head of the organization’s theater department.  This year 21 children ages 6-12 spent one week learning everything that most go on to present a theatrical production.  Not only do all participants have speaking roles in the play for which they must create and develop a character, they also must help make their own costumes, build (and often design) the sets, and act as the stage crew, all while learning their lines. The five-day workshop ended with the full-dress production at the end of the day on Friday.

Angela Merrill has been with Creative Arts since 1999, when she started as a volunteer, and rapidly became interested in theater.  She has been the head of the theater department since 2002.  She wrote Candyland five years ago as a fantasy based on the children’s board game of the same name; the play asks what would happen if four real kids get trapped inside the game.  Art director Jamie McDonough is responsible for the design and creation of the costumes and sets.  A graduate of MassArt with a major in community art education, she makes the initial plans for sets and puts the students to work on building and painting the props.  She realizes that 6-year-olds and sewing machines might be a disastrous combination, so necessarily becomes the chief seamstress as well.

Two student assistant directors also helped the students in all aspects of theater. Kelly DiCicco is an 11th grader who has been with Creative Arts for over four years.  Although she loves theater, she sees it as a hobby rather than as a career.  Alexander Witham, a 12th grader who has been with Creative Arts for six years, has immersed himself more deeply in theater and has performed with the Colonial Chorus Players, studied voice, and served as an intern with Creative Arts. In the original version of Candyland, he portrayed Lord Licorice, and he brought his old hat to show the students.  He is currently auditioning for college theater programs.

The play opens with four children playing Candyland.  After a fight over the rules of the game and the arrival of an annoying younger sister, one of the children finds herself stuck in a licorice pool, an element of the original game.  Unable to grasp this mysterious occurrence, the children, now immersed in the game itself, decide to follow the game trail that leads to King Kandy who can surely set the girl free. The pesky little sister bravely decides to remain with her sibling in spite of the unknown danger. As the rest of the group wanders along the trail, they encounter the inhabitants of Candyland, most of whom are in the original game but with additional candies and sweets that have been added to carry out the plot of the play.  Lord Licorice has trapped the girl in hopes that her friends will seek out Princess Frostine and convince her to marry him. Through a series of events, the children manage to trap Lord Licorice and make their way to King Kandy who arranges for them to leave Candyland and return to real life.

Creative Arts offers various after school classes in theater for ages 2.9-17.  Beginning, intermediate and advanced acting, puppetry, pantomime, improvisation, and play writing are among the classes currently scheduled.  For more information about Creative Arts and its programs, call (781) 942-9600 or check its website www.weteachcreativearts.org.