“Why was that funny?” a baffled child asked his fellow actors.
Parents at Tuesday’s tech rehearsal for their kids’ new play, “Groovy!,” couldn’t help but laugh when their kids, who spend their days trolling YouTube, cracked scripted jokes about dated cultural phenomena like Lawrence Welk.
In “Groovy!,” flower children attempt to put on a free concert in an apple orchard, but are beset by “square” adults who don’t understand their vision.
Bedecked in pleather pants, Mardi Gras beads and Day-Glo bell bottoms, the kids spar with the town sheriff and the orchard’s crab-apple owner, while finding plenty of opportunities to break out into “spontaneous” song and dance.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley’s ClubHouse Theatre this weekend will present “Groovy!,” a musical celebrating the hippies and flower children of the 1960s.
The ClubHouse Theatre program recently ranked among the top five arts programs offered by Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide, club chief executive Tanya Hoxsie said.
At their rehearsals, the kids don’t just learn their lines; they help with costume and set creation, block scenes and work on song and dance routines.
Established in 1967, the Huntington Valley club had more than 7,600 members last year; in May, it was ranked among the top four clubs in the nation.
Its ClubHouse Academy Center for the Arts includes dance, gymnastics, martial arts and more; the ClubHouse Theatre has produced dozens of shows, with Hoxsie’s husband, Bob, directing.
“What I think is the neatest is that they all become like a little family,” Tanya Hoxsie said.
Before shows, Bob Hoxsie gathers his young actors and crew together in a circle.
After linking arms, the kids listen to advice and notes for their upcoming performance: reminders to pick up after themselves backstage, smile onstage, and not turn their backs to the audience.
After this, they squeeze each other’s hand, one by one, in a good-luck chain. When the final hand is squeezed, the kids twist out of the chain with a call to break a leg.
“We do a circle before every show,” Hoxsie told them. “That way, everyone’s equal. Everyone’s important. There are no stars.”
For instance, the play’s stagers were struck by a 5-year-old who sat and watched rehearsals for weeks.
