Local Girl Finds A Home On Stage Starring In 'Annie'

An invitation to attend an audition led to scoring the lead role in “Annie” for Whitefish Bay resident Ellie Taft.

“I was really excited when I got it because there were only a couple parts,” Taft said.

Taft, who is a seventh-grader at , said she has been singing for awhile, but really got into music and performing in the past couple of years. So when her friend asked her to go to the audition at the Sunset Playhouse in Elm Grove in October, she said yes.

The musical “Annie” is about an orphaned girl who dreams of finding her real parents one day and needs to get past the woman who runs the orphanage, Miss Hannigan. It runs all month long at Sunset Playhouse.

As the main character, 12-year-old Taft said she was familiar with the story when she auditioned. “I saw it once when I was really little. My mom and grandma took me to the play,” She said.

Taft had to pull a few late-night practices, which made school the next day a little difficult, but the long rehearsals were worth it when they finally hit the stage. “Performances are really fun,” Taft said. “It seems like everybody is getting used to them. It was really exciting that first week with the audience.”

“It's really exciting, we're really proud of her,” said her mother, Cathy Taft. Cathy and her husband Chuck are not quite sure where Ellie got her musical talent from, but are amazed at the work she is doing on stage with the dozens of lines she had to memorize. “We went over lines at the very beginning a few times, but mostly she did it on her own. She pretty much learned (them) at practice,” Cathy said.

Ellie isn't the only member of the show with ties to Whitefish Bay. Her co-star Seamus Murray, a 12-year-old golden retriever, plays Sandy, and lives nearby in Whitefish Bay. Ellie got together with Seamus a few times to practice having the dog come to her and follow her for different scenes in the show.

The cast is made up of a variety of talented children and performers from the area, including a second-grader from Brookfield.

Finding A Home On The Stage

Ellie is no stranger to the stage. She sings in her school choir and is also a member of an extra-curricular choir. In 2010, she performed the role of Cheryl in the First Stage Children's Theater performance of “Miss Nelson Is Missing."

“I do a theater camp every summer for four weeks which is really fun. I like to audition for plays 'cause you get to meet a lot of people,” Taft said.

In addition to her involvement in theater, Ellie is also on her school's ski club and plays on a soccer team in the fall and spring.

So far, having to balance her different obligations hasn't been a problem for Ellie. “She does great — school is her priority and she's an excellent student. She really puts that first,” Cathy said.

There are a few reasons why Ellie likes performing the role of Annie. “I sort of like that Annie's sort of tough,” she said. “I just think it's sort of fun to be totally different. All the clothes are totally different than what we wear today and the wig is red which is awesome.”