During Chantilly High’s “Goldilocks on Trial,” Goldilocks (Megan Dinneen) and her attorney, Wombat (Alex Yee), are confident she’ll be found innocent. Photo by Bonnie Hobbs.
Picture Goldilocks and Baby Bear as a teenager and a preteen, respectively, and imagine Goldilocks being prosecuted for breaking into the three bears’ house. That’s the premise of Chantilly High’s upcoming children’s show, “Goldilocks on Trial.”
It takes the stage Friday, Jan. 27, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 28, at 2 and 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Jan. 29, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door. Featuring a cast and crew of more than 45, it was written by the school’s former theater director, Ed Monk. And although he retired last June, he’s returned to direct this show.
“We held auditions in early November and rehearsals began in December,” he said. “I agreed to do this before an assistant director was hired, and it’s a nice way for me to transition into retirement.”
“The kids have been doing great, and they really stepped up under unusual circumstances,” continued Monk. “We have a strong cast; and, as always, we’re pleased to have a really talented and nice bunch of kids.”
Playing the title role is senior Megan Dinneen. “In this show, Goldilocks is 15 or 16 and very cunning,” said Dinneen. “She knows how to play ‘innocent’ to her advantage so she can manipulate people. She’s also loud and doesn’t really care a lot about what happens to anyone else, as long as she gets her way. She’ll ruin anyone else’s life, as long as she doesn’t have to suffer, herself. So this is definitely a twist on her usual, fairytale character.”
Dinneen loves her role because it’s so high-energy and because her character is “all over the place emotionally since she’s desperate to convince everyone she’s innocent. It’s fun to play an evil-like twist on something we all read growing up. And Goldilocks is so loud, out there and expressive that I don’t need to hold back on anything.”
And that’s why children’s shows are such fun, said Dinneen. “All the characters are larger-than-life and not normal,” she said. “You can shout and use big motions and gestures to make your point.”
She said both children and adults will like the humor, and parents will “get to see their kids enjoy the same characters they experienced when they were young. And all the characters are so over-the-top that kids of all ages will like them.”
Sophomore Zoe Hutcheson plays Baby Bear. “She’s a sassy, grumpy preteen who wants to do her own thing and wear her own style of clothes,” said Hutcheson. “She’s also a vegetarian, which most bears aren’t, so that can cause problems, too. She just wants to be herself and not have her parents tell her what to do.”
Since this part is larger than her previous roles and is so much fun to play, Hutcheson’s having a good time portraying Baby Bear. “As an exasperated, eye-rolling preteen, she’s full of emotions and unintentional jokes,” said Hutcheson. “And it’s fun to play off Jared Belsky [Papa Bear] and Anna Rhodes [Mama Bear] because their personalities are so opposite to Baby Bear’s.”
In a children’s show, she said, “You can be exaggerated and take things to an extreme. And you can be as ridiculous as you want because kids love slapstick humor.”
Hutcheson said the show has the basic elements of the classic story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” but with different twists. “Some characters aren’t who you expect them to be,” she said. “For example, Baby Bear is a preteen and there are new, fun characters not in the original story, such as Merwin, the Big, Bad Wolf. There’s also the third Little Piggie and a porridge analyst called Dr. Cantaloupe.”
Sophomore Jared Belsky said that, at times, Papa Bear is the strict dad. “But it’s funny when he’s yelling at his daughter and she’s complaining and not taking him seriously,” he said. “He pretends to be the head of the house; but when his wife steps up, he backs down. And each of the three bears has a different view of what happened. He thinks everything was fine in their house before then, but it wasn’t.”
Belsky likes playing Papa Bear because “he’s a fun character and I get to interact with both Mama and Baby Bear. He’s big and goofy — a combination of the jokes he makes and his personality.” He also said children’s shows are fun for the audience because everyone onstage is having such a good time.
“This is a funny show, and both children and adults will find a lot to laugh at,” he added. “And it’s really high-energy and never skips a beat.”
Portraying a person named Wombat, who’s Goldilocks’s defense attorney, is freshman Alex Yee. “She’s accused of breaking and entering into the bears’ house and eating some of their porridge, so she’s on trial,” he said. “He’s loud and vocal and really believes he can win every case he has, so he’s pretty arrogant. He also likes to be nice to his defense witnesses, but vicious to the others.”
Enjoying his role, Yee said, “I have some great lines I can do a lot with. Wombat believes he’s serious; but to the audience, he’s funny. He interacts with all the witnesses, but differently with each one. He eventually reaches his wit’s end, and almost every line he says is overdramatic because he believes this is the case of his life.”
Yee said children’s shows allow actors to be over-the-top all the time. “You engage the audience and make them laugh, and it’s like you’re a child again,” he said. “People will like how all the jokes come one after the other, and the actors are great at keeping the fun going all the way through.”