By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
At 14, Alice Walters is a stage veteran.
This weekend when she directs “Bedtime Stories (As Told by Our Dad) (Who Messed Them Up),” she’ll have logged in her 36th show. She’ll add her 37th six weeks later as a member of the cast of “ShakeSPLOSION,” Horizon Youth Theatre’s summer production. All that since as a 5-year-old she joined the angel choir in a production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”
“Bedtime Stories” will be staged at the Bowling Green Performing Arts Center Friday, April 28, and Saturday, April 29 at 7 p.m. Admission is by donation.
The play shows what happens when a father tries to satisfy his three daughters requests for bedtime stories each to their liking. Three classic tales get turned on their head in the process.
Alice is the youngest child of Michael and Karen Walters. Her sibling, Bob, is studying technical theater at Ohio University, and Rose is active in the high school drama club.
When Alice got to Bowling Green Middle School, she and classmate Sam Gorsevski discussed the need for a drama club. Those discussions continued into seventh grade, and by the time they entered eighth grade they knew was now or never. “We had no more years to push it back,” Alice said.
“Sam was really the pushing force because I was kind of apprehensive,” she said. “He was more passionate. and he was really passionate force.”
He was new to theater having participated in workshops at the high school as well as attending shows.
Jo Beth Gonzalez, the drama teacher at the high school, said she had attempted to launch a drama club at the middle school to no avail.
Then Alice and Sam reached out to her for advice. She was taken by their enthusiasm and suggested they find a teacher to serve as advisor.
Sam and Alice recruited Kim Stevens, an eighth-grade language arts teacher.
Stevens said she didn’t have any theater experience but agreed. She thought it would involve a workshop or two, not a full-blown production.
Gonzalez recruited some high school students to help the young tech crew, and she helped find the script.
Alice said she liked the “Bedtime Stories” script because it was funny. She wanted something light because to her it seems so much is taken seriously at the middle school. “Bedtime Stories” got its first run Thursday on state testing day when students needed a diversion.
Walters said the story of the siblings and their dad reminds her of her own family. When she was younger, they shared a room. At bedtime, the family had a ritual: schedule, weather, dream. They would go over the next day’s schedule, which was important because they were all so busy. The weather, Alice said, was just something to delay going to sleep. Then there was the dream, she said. “They would tell us the beginning of a story to give us something to dream about, something to make our night better.”
Sam decided he wanted to concentrate on acting and has a couple roles in “Bedtime Stories,” including as a dancing sheep. Alice took on the rest. “I got the stuff really formalized and became more of the leader.”
Stevens said the eighth grader has been impressive in the way she has managed a cast of 30 and a crew of 10.
“Middle school is a very hard time for people,” Alice said. ‘We need a creative outlet where people can work together and discover. … I felt that’s something I could leave behind to help future students find their love for theater, but also help them with overall life skills.”
While young thespians have theatrical outlets in the community including Horizon Youth Theatre, which Walters and her siblings have been extensively involved in, it is often easier for families if an activity occurs at the school. And, she added: “We get to do a performance for the entire student body.”
Her first theater experience was going to see her brother Bob in a HYT production of “The Phantom Toll Booth.” Her mother, Karen Walters, who teaches early elementary music, remembers her watching everything intently.
Local theater has become a family activity. The whole family has been involved in two productions of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” They were all in the cast of the Black Swamp Players’ “The Music Man.” Even the family dog Dojo has gotten into the act, playing Paulette’s pet in the high school production of “Legally Blond.”
“I grew up with it,” Alice said. “While doing it, you’re playing other people. It helps you find more about yourself and build community and find lifelong friends. It’s a creative outlet where you can express yourself. … Theater is a way to keep growing without it being in an academic setting.”
She continued: “I never want to look and say ‘I wish I had done that.’”
