The inaugural performance during the inaugural year for the drama club at Northgate Intermediate School offers the youngsters, cast members and audience alike, lessons on bullying, said the author of the original musical.
"Frog Fantasy" will be performed at 6:30 p.m. May 10 in the auditorium at Beechcroft High School, 6100 Beechcroft Road, said Leila Ba. She is the mother of a Northgate student and the organizer of the drama program.
Jane Schnitter of Westerville, who met Ba a few years ago when the Northland woman's daughter appeared in a play in Westerville, wrote "Frog Fantasy" for the students at Northgate Intermediate, a school for fourth- and fifth-graders at 6655 Sharon Woods Blvd.
In the musical, Schnitter said, four frogs have grown weary of always being depicted as ugly and "warty."
"They decide to go to Mother Goose land and disrupt the fairy tales," she said.
Along the way, Schnitter said, the frogs learn a lot, as do the students.
"They are learning about theater," Schnitter said. "They are learning the terms of theater. They have to do a lot of memorization and, hopefully, the bullying message gets across."
Schnitter said bullying is a big element in a lot of fairy tales, but not in her version, which features a Snow White who doesn't eat a poisoned apple and a Cinderella who picks out her own gown and shoes.
Tina Murdock plays Frog 2 in the production.
"I'm not so smart," she said of her role. "I like being my character because I like to make my friends laugh."
"I like drama club because it's fun and you get to play different parts," said Roqeebah Ogunlana, who was cast as both Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.
Ba said she started the drama program to provide an affordable after-school enrichment program for the students.
"They're really enjoying it," she said.
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