GREENFIELD — More than 40 kids pile into the gym at St. Michael School for a rehearsal of “Annie Jr.” A dozen or so girls grab dollar-store buckets and mops and line up for one of the show’s featured tunes, “It’s a Hard-Knock Life,” a song that depicts the orphans’ depressing existence of endless chores and their antagonistic relationship with the orphanage headmistress, Miss Hannigan.
Director Angela Mickler watches and listens, clapping out the tempo when the singers suddenly drift off the beat. “A Hard-Knock Life” becomes “Easy Street,” another number in the show, followed by “Tomorrow,” the signature anthem sung by Annie to her dog Sandy.
On Friday and Saturday, St. Michael School will present its first musical production, “Annie Jr.” under the direction of Mickler and Frances Hull.
When St. Michael Principal Ruth Hittel realized her new music teacher had experience with musical theater, she approached Mickler with the idea for “Annie Jr.” The rest will soon be St. Michael’s theater history.
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Mickler knew Frances Hull had experience working with children through her involvement with KidsPlay Inc. children’s theater. She brought Hull on board as co-director and choreographer for the show.
Together, the two have combined their talents to wrangle the cast of 44 into an audience-ready production.
In case you’re not familiar with America’s favorite red-headed orphan, “Annie Jr.” tells the story of Annie, abandoned at an orphanage during the height of the Great Depression. What keeps the feisty child going is half of a locket and a promise that her parents will return to get her. In the meantime, the secretary of billionaire Oliver Warbucks shows up at the orphanage to ‘rent’ a child to spend Christmas at the Warbucks Mansion. The efforts of grouchy headmistress Miss Hannigan to dissuade her fall on deaf ears as the secretary chooses Annie. Warbucks — in spite of his single-minded focus on business — develops a fatherly affection for Annie and wants to adopt her. But Annie has other ideas and enlists him in the cause to help him find her parents. When word of Warbucks’s offer of millions in reward money for Annie’s parents reaches Miss Hannigan, she, her brother Rooster and his girlfriend concoct a scheme to get the reward money by posing as Annie’s parents.
“Annie Jr.” differs from the full-production version of “Annie” with the omission of a couple of plot lines: the song “Hooverville” is cut, along with the Boylan Sisters’ song at the radio station and scenes with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s cabinet.
“The songs are shortened a lot, too,” adds Mickler.
“Annie Jr.” is just the latest project in Mickler’s career in a life of music. She began playing the violin at the age of 5 and has since increased her instrumental repertoire to include the piano, the viola, the cello and the bass. She attended John Brown University in Arkansas as a voice major but quit to get married and start a family.
A week in the life of Angela Mickler includes her job as music teacher at St. Michael’s, after-school rehearsal for “Annie Jr.”, weekly rehearsals with the Brandywine Wind and the Greenfield Community Choir, directing the Greenfield Community Orchestra and multi-day rehearsals at Eastern Hancock High School as music director for its upcoming production of “Beauty and the Beast.”
In addition to that mind-boggling, scheduling nightmare of regular rehearsals and practices, Mickler can also be found playing in the orchestra for theater productions at the Ricks Centre for the Arts, New Palestine High School and the Tipton Community Theatre. She plays with the Lapel Community Band, and…oh yes, she fits in private weekly lessons for more than 20 music students in her home studio.
Matthew Hentz, a seventh-grader at St. Michael’s, is part of the show.
“I play Drake the butler,” Matthew said, “or as I like to say, ‘Head Butt.’”
The comment seemed to catch Mickler by surprise, as she looked away and covered her mouth to suppress a laugh.
Another actor, 3rd-grader Kyle Gregoire, talks about his role as Sandy. Even though most productions of “Annie” use a real dog, Kyle approached Mickler about securing the role for himself. He’s in five scenes — no singing or dancing, but he does get to bark.
“I like it,” Kyle said. “My costume has a big head for the dog and a little tail, but it’s going to be cute.”
Kyle, who doesn’t have a dog at home, is concerned about being hot in the costume, but he plans to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.
Much of Mickler’s work over the past three decades has been with children and young people. She obviously enjoys it.
“It’s neat to pass the education of the lost art of music on to the next generation,” Mickler said.
“Music. It’s just going away,” she said, referring to the common occurrence of musical programs being cut from school budgets.
“It’s just fun to see the kids learn and the spark of ‘look what I can do’ when they accomplish something,” Mickler said. “It’s really fun, really rewarding.”
