Frog and Toad

If the success of a musical is judged by the outpouring of emotion between the performers and their audience, Saturday’s performance of A Year With Frog and Toad - Kids at the Arts Center Theatre was an unqualified success.

The appreciative crowd - many of them friends and family of the performers - could not have been happier with the surprisingly polished performance the young thespians were able to pull off with less than two weeks of preparation.

"In just ten days,” said director Chris Dayett, "we put on a Broadway-style musical. Some say it can't be done. I say it can. And we did it in those short ten days.”

Dayett, Marco Island Academy’s Performing Arts Instructor, is sharing his talents with the Marco Island Center for the Arts. 

Hyla Crane, Executive Director of the Marco Island Center for the Arts, couldn’t have been prouder of the production.

“We are thrilled beyond belief to be having this children's performance here at the Art Center Theater,” Crane said, "This could never have happened had we not had such an amazing talent right here in our community. We were blessed to work with Chris Dayett. So grateful that Marco Island Academy has such a talented theater instructor but also theater director, scenic designer, musical director, and choreographer. Chris will take things from soup to nuts - he can do it all - and it is just a privilege to work with him. I worked in professional theater and he's top-notch, so having him here to see this happen with these children, it's just the beginning of what we hope we can continue to do.”

But of course, it was the kids who were the real stars Saturday night. Dayett and the kids enjoyed the fast-paced production.

"We held auditions,” Dayett said, "and I gave them a role that would give them a chance to shine or that would maybe push them a little bit and help strengthen their skill set. We learned how to act. We learned how to sing. We spent a lot of time learning the Charleston step. They also learned about sets, costumes, props, and what is essential to telling a story. So we came up with Frog's House and Toad's House. About 90 percent of the work that you see was all made, created, and painted by the kids. I think I maybe spent a total of 15 minutes outside of the workshop touching up some things here and there, which is a first for me. Usually, it's days and weekends touching things up. This has been an incredible cast to work with. There's only seven of them, so some of them played up to four characters in the show. And it just has been an absolute pleasure to watch them grow from quiet actors to very energetic actors.”

A Year With Frog and Toad - Kids is a musical based on the easy-reader series of children’s books written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel. The musical was first produced by the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis in 2002 and later played on Broadway.

In the Marco production, Alina Nguyen played Frog and Marcus Fowler played Toad. Cassie Rianna and Zoie Swift played birds and snails. Rianna also made an appearance as a lizard and a mole. Ava Craig played a turtle, a squirrel, and a mole. Sophia Bellini played a mouse, a squirrel, and a mole. Isla Ray performed as a squirrel and a mole. Logan Yarnell was the assistant director.

The production was a snappy 30 minutes long. When the actors did their curtain call, they soaked in a thunderous round of applause from the audience and were immediately engulfed by their admiring audience.