t-r photos by lana bradstream The younger participants in the Kids Acting Academy perform a scene from “Finding Nemo Jr.” on Saturday at the Marshalltown Performing Arts Center. Attendees not only acted, but also designed costumes and the sets.

The Marshalltown Community Theater Kids Acting Academy welcomed “Brother Sharkbait,” aka “Nemo” in the revival of the program with “Finding Nemo Jr.”

Roughly 60 students participated in bringing the underwater story to the stage of the Marshalltown Performing Arts Center. Students were split into two groups during the five-day academy – elementary-aged students attended in the morning and junior high and older kids in the afternoon. They put on four performances – two for family members on Friday and two for the general public on Saturday.

Director Vanessa Engel was happy with the number of students who signed up for the week-long academy and with the resulting work seen on stage. They were very excited to learn about the different aspects of theater, she said. Besides learning how to act, students also received lessons in music and dancing, sound and lighting, improv, art and theater vocabulary.

“It has been wonderful,” Engel said. “The kids are so full of energy. You can tell it’s high energy when there is so much enthusiasm. The kids are learning a lot.”

Incorporating all of the lessons into the play was a challenge for many students, as Engel said there is a lot to remember.

Director Vanessa Engel gives students instructions on lining up to take their bows following the performance of “Finding Nemo Jr.” The general public was able to view two performances on Saturday.

“Holding a script, reading a script, smiling, dancing, act, act, act,” she said. “It’s hard. Its really good practice for all these kids for later on.”

Academy students applied their new knowledge to the set designs for the play, on their costumes to make themselves look more like sea creatures. Engel said the lessons in improv, also known as improvisational theater, were particularly popular. They were able to apply their new improv skills of spontaneously creating and acting as characters, into their “Finding Nemo Jr.” roles.

More than 40 kids were involved in the morning session, so Engel said not all of the students got desired roles.

“With 42 kids, you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit,” she said. “The majority of them did get the roles they wanted. Everyone got a part, whether it was a part they were aiming for or not. We’re mostly focusing on the process, not the final product.”

For the older group of participants, there were a little more than 15 actors, so six children had to fill multiple roles.

As there were only five days dedicated to the academy, actors were able to read from their scripts as the play was performed. Engel said from the beginning, the students learned about audition strategies such as where to stand and how to relax beforehand.

Lincoln McLeod plays “Nemo” and Jack Borcherding fills the role of “Marlin” during a Saturday performance of “Finding Nemo, Jr.” During the afternoon performance, the role of “Nemo” was played by Beckham McLeod and “Marlin,” Emmett Stansberry.

“We’ve had a really great time and I’m so glad we chose this show for our opening of coming back for the Kids Acting Academy,” she said. “[The academy is] really not about being a star. It’s about working and being better than you were the day before. That’s all you can ask for – trying your best, and that is what I really want to instill in these kids.”

Engel hopes the Kids Acting Academy will return next year and give more budding thespians an opportunity to enroll – as long as there is a location for the academy to be held.

“I am just so proud of all of these kids for all of their hard work,” she said. “Its really cool to see some of these kids light up, try something new and put themselves out there. They’re figuring things out and learning about themselves. They’re having fun and you see kids make friends. It warms my heart. Theater is more than just messing around. I think a lot of people think the arts are frills, icing on the cake, but there are important skills a child can learn from theater – communication, advocating for themselves, collaboration, being creative, making something their own.”

STARRING ROLES

The familiar roles of “Finding Nemo Jr.” were filled by two students, one older and another younger, in separate performances. Some of the roles and the actors bringing them to life were:

Nemo the young clownfish by Beckham McLeod and Lincoln McLeod;

Marlin the father clownfish by Emmett Stansberry and Jack Borcherding;

Dory the forgetful blue tang fish by Gwen Schmit and Scarlett Coleman;

Gill the Moorish Idol fish by Echo Schumacher and Cade Parks;

Nigel the pelican by Harper Blackburn and Elias Carter;

Crush the sea turtle by Will Barbosa and Kapri Stowell;

Bruce the great white shark by Evelynn Buck and Lillyn Eichhorn;

Coral the mother clownfish by Wesleigh Keeling and Alydia Minkel;

Pearl the flap jack octopus by Harper Blackburn and Zuleyma Bermudez;

Sheldon the seahorse by Arlet Sanchez and Skylar Slagle;

Chum the shark by Evelynn Buck and Lillyn Eichhorn;

Anchor the shark by Paisley Sywassink and Kaegan Minkel;

Bubbles the yellow tang, by Wesleigh Keeling and Olivia Eilers;

Bloat the blowfish by Ray Massa and Avery Slagle;

Gurgle the gramma fish by Rylee Muller and Braelynn Daters;

Peach the starfish by Sonia Etzen and Skyann McCulley;

Squirt the sea turtle by Ray Massa and Sahara McCulley.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.