The Midnight Train Crossing

Tom Sawyer was the next play in the First Stage series this season. I'd seen Tom Sawyer done by the same group in 1999 so I still remembered it vaguely. I think maybe they cast it older last time, because I thought I remembered Tom and Huck being older.
All First Stage shows are double cast with the children and we saw the "Twain Cast" (The other cast was the "Clemens Cast". How clever of them)

The set was pretty much a big tree behind a fence, with a tree behind. They took the fence apart to form various parts of the "world". Like, a few of the boards became benches for the school and the auditorium. Two sections folded down to become the graveyard. And then they moved pieces of it around to make the different parts of the cave.
I was sitting on the aisle and the stage area was open, which meant that I had children running past me periodically. But I didn't reach out and trip them. Honestly. I didn't :)

One of the first scenes was Tom and Huck playing Robin Hood, and... I couldn't understand a word they said. This was not a good way to start off the play. But after a few minutes, they either improved their diction or I could used to the accent.

Tom Sawyer (Jonathon Reichart) definitely grew on me as the play progressed. He had a lot of cute facial expressions, particularly when he was interacting with Becky Thatcher (Alison Kennedy). He perfectly conveyed the fact that he's got a good heart, he just isn't the most well-behaved boy in the world.
I liked the scene where they got "engaged to be married" and then promptly broke up, because Tom said he had been "engaged" to another girl before. Then Tom was left lamenting about "women"

Aunt Polly was wonderfully played by Laurie Birmingham I think that she was the best actress in the whole play. She flitted about the stage lamenting about how Tom was going to be the death of her, and that she wasn't doing right by him because she wasn't punishing him. According to Tom's teacher, Miss Dobbins (Jeana Stillman) and the Reverend (Bo Johnson), she's spoiling him. Tom did seem to care for her, and he didn't like it when she was upset, but that never stopped him from causing problems.

I loved the fence painting scene. Something about first watching Tom, and then a whole gang of boys painting the fence 'artistically' was really rather amusing.
And then when Aunt Polly returned, Tom flopped dramatically to the ground as though he were exhausted.

Patrick Lawlor played Joe - the villain, and he was creepy. After he committed the murder he had a very nice caboose laugh as he exited the stage. Even before that, he stalked around the stage looking generally creepy in his black coat and eye patch.

Muff Potter, (Tom Reed) the friendly town drunk had center stage in the big dramatic jail scene where he lamented his fate and made Tom and Huck promise not to ever get drunk.

I really liked the Sheriff, played by Todd Denning - who was also the fight coach. The reverend would be trying to control the kids - trying being the key word, and then the sheriff would yell and get them under control.
As the fight coach, Denning did a good job, for this play was nothing if not action packed. There were fights among Tom and Alfred, and then Tom and Huck. There's the big murder scene of course, where Joe kills Doc Robinson, and the scene in the caves where Joe attacks Tom and Becky. All of them were very well choreographed. Especially the fight between Tom and Huck - it really did look as though they were hitting each other.

Watching the gang of towns children was great fun. I'll list them off cuz they all did excellently.

Jim: Henry Ballesteros
Susie: Alexis Block
Jeff: Kyle Conner
Ben: Andrew Groble
Sid: Jordan Horne
Johnny: Noah Rowlett
Amy: Laura Troshynski
Mary: Clarise White
Alfred: Brian Srite
Billy: Noah Laufer

The last two, Alfred and Billy were my favorite out of the group. Alfred is... well he's sort of a nerd. The others pick on him, and Brian Srite did a GREAT job playing him that way. He made him sort of whiney and showed why the other kids pick on him.

Billy - I'm pretty sure that's the name of the kid, for once I realized I liked him I tried to pay attention to try and catch his name - was the best out of the gang. He had a good majority of the funny lines, and he was just so animated, he drew my attention straight to him.
At the picnic scene, when they were trying to decide what to do first, he was all for eating lunch. He seemed to be permanently hungry.
Later at the picnic, they go exploring the caves and start to play a game where they try to blow each others candles out. He blows out Becky's candle and does a sort of victory dance, only to have his own candle blown out by Tom... twice.