Anyone looking for entertaining children’s theater – by children – would have been impressed with the East Lyme Children’s Theater’s 40th production. The community institution, started years ago by passionate supporters of youth and community theater, puts on its productions at the Niantic Center School on West Main Street in Niantic.
This year’s show, Fairy Tale Court, ran the first two weekends in April. Kids from five to eleven years old, from East Lyme, Montville, Waterford and Stonington, were involved. Two “cast mothers,” Kris Brookes and Barbara Heaney, both of Niantic, were co-directors with Lee Rummel, who with his wife Liz, run the SouthEastern Connecticut Regional Youth Theater (SECRYT).
“The play is a wonderful spoof about The Big Bad Wolf [Three Little Pigs] and The Wicked Witch [Wizard of Oz] going on trial, with witnesses including Hansel & Gretel, Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs and Dorothy,” explained Liz, who was show producer. “The production had both humor that only adults would pick up on, but yet the children also enjoyed it on a different level.”
The young actors got to flex their acting abilities by playing two different roles, one for each trial. Cast members, in alphabetical order and their parts were Maura Donnelly, Grandma in the first act and a Flying Monkey in the second; Shannon Duhamel, Little Pig #2 and the Scarecrow; Lauren Eberle, the Big Bad Wolf and Defense Attorney; Amelia Green, a gallery member and Snow White; Elizabeth Harris, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wicked Witch; Elizabeth (Ahren) Heaney, Prosecutor in both trials; Sean Heaney, a little boy and Hansel; Julia Lefurge, a badger and Dorothy; Megan Lefurge, Little Pig #3 and a dwarf; Hannah McGaughlin, a gallery member and Sleeping Beauty; Greysen Mitchell, a gallery member and Prince Charming; Areil Plantz, Judge I.L. Hangem in both trials; Claire Rummel as Bailiff in both trials, and Tessa Rummel as Little Pig #1 and Gretel. Audrey Rummel was the stage manager.
More students and their parents were involved behind the scenes with set construction, hair and make-up, costumes, props and stage crew.
The Rummels are certainly no strangers to theater or East Lyme. Both grew up attending East Lyme High School. Lee’s mother is Brenda Kerr Rummel, a driving force behind community theater in New London and the area in the 1960s and 1970s. She was involved in efforts that led to the creation of the East Lyme Arts Council, the East Lyme Children’s Theater and the Eugene O'Neil Awards.
“My mom was smitten with drama when she attended New London High School in the fifties. When she married my dad, she gave him an ultimatum and he acquiesced and got involved, too,” Lee laughed. “As a kid, I started with the Children’s Theater in 1969.”
Brenda Kerr, the actress, stage manager, mentor and inspiration, died of breast cancer in 1973. She was barely 33 years old.
“I was 12, my brother was 9 when she died,” Lee said. “You kind of go on autopilot when that happens.”
Lee and Liz have four children – Logan is 20, Audrey is17, Claire is 10 and Tessa is 7. The family is in the process of adopting Codie, 2 ½, who they have cared for as a foster family.
Their adult involvement with the East Lyme Children’s Theater started as volunteers as their own children joined. Lee started directing the kids’ productions in 1998; Liz started producing the shows in 2000. Lee also is drama director at Fitch Senior High School in Groton. Then there is his full-time job as a 911 dispatcher for the Town of Groton, rotating between 12-hour shifts and time off.
As a home-schooling family, the couple started to put on home-schooling theater workshops, running a program at a theater in Norwich. They formed the Brenda Kerr Theater (BKT) in 2002. Their initial intent was to provide live theater opportunities for small, local groups. In 2005, Lee also directed the musical Grease and the comedy Romeo and Winifred for the Falcon Theater Company at Fitch Senior High School in Groton. His current position as the school’s drama director is part time.
In 2006, they reorganized the BKT to become the SECRYT with the expanded goal of offering these experiences to all children, youth and young adults in southern and eastern Connecticut.
The SECRYT assumed all responsibility for the management of the East Lyme Children’s Theater in 2006, working with the East Lyme Parks & Recreation Department.
The SECRYT has a lofty mission, one based on the recognition that participating in various aspects of the production of live theater can be an exhilarating and rewarding experience, inspire confidence, promote teamwork, bring diverse groups of people together for a common goal and facilitate personal expression.
Its objective is to provide the environment and opportunities in which youth can learn, practice and apply the performing, administrative, operational, technical and managerial disciplines of the dramatic arts of live theater.
Collectively, the couple claims more than nine years of theatrical experience, more than 25 public productions and 100 performances and have conducted approximately 45 theater workshops for youth. In all, they have worked with close to 1300 students or cast members. A full listing of the couple’s theatrical productions is listed on the SECRYT website.
Liz and Lee work together on managing administrative, operational, production and workshop-related activities. Lee teaches all of the SECRYT workshops and directs all of the public ensemble drama, comedy and musical productions. Additional instructions, musical directors and choreographers are contracted to fill the production staff.
“I’m a very good delegator,” said Liz. “I like to find the scripts, make the schedules and arrange everything that needs to be taken care of for the students so Lee can focus on directing.”
“Or pulling my hair out,” interjected Lee.
The Rummels currently run the SECRYT as a business from their home. Longer-term, they envision having their own or leasing theater production facilities, and possibly establishing a non-profit organization committed to youth theater in the region.
Meanwhile, the SECYRT website includes a description of the ideal production space: a proscenium or black box stage for rehearsals and performances; two changing areas to keep boys and girls separated during costume changes; a large enough area to accommodate an audience to enjoy snacks and beverages during show intermissions and ample parking for audience members, SECRYT staff and adult volunteers.
For more information, see www.thesecryt.com