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Local elementary school students filled the seats of Falk Theatre last week for Blue Planet, directed by Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance Nicole Crowther and starring a cast of 15 UTampa actors. The play was based on the award-winning children’s book, The Story of the Blue Planet, by Icelandic writer and documentary film director Andri Snær Magnason.

The story follows lead character Jolly Goodday, who lands on a planet where only children exist. Played by first-year theatre and accounting double major Evan McCrane, Jolly Goodday arrived on stage by spaceship and walked out playing an electric guitar.

Throughout the show, the cast roamed the stage and aisles, using every inch of Falk Theatre for an immersive story about children who lose a little bit of their youth every time a wish, like being able to fly, is granted by Jolly Goodday. At the beginning, one actor was suspended in a harness above the stage to simulate flying like a butterfly, taking advantage of even the vertical space in the theatre.

The theatre department does not usually put on children’s plays, and a special performance on April 17 invited students from Rampello Downtown Partnership K-8 Magnet School in downtown Tampa. Before the show started, the children’s enthusiasm filled the theatre as they played classic games like duck-duck-goose, telephone and hide-and-seek.

McCrane said he had to adjust the way he performed to cater to the young audience. 

“Every single kid in the audience screamed for like five minutes, and I had to cut them off to keep going with the story,” McCrane said regarding the reaction after one of his lines. “From the energy they gave, they seemed to really like it.” 

Crowther said the cast and crew had prepared five days a week since February for last week’s four performances, and first-year students made up almost half of the cast. Having so many underclassmen is unheard of, she said.

The UTampa theatre department puts on one play and one musical per semester, along with other performances. Auditions are open to students of all majors. All performances are open to the public, and tickets are free.

For some Blue Planet cast members, like sophomore theatre and English double major Kiersten Watson, it was their first time playing multiple characters. Watson remained adaptable through quick changes into different costumes, she said, from being one of the children in the first and third acts to portraying different animals and a tree in act two.

She said the experience of performing in a children’s play was a “full-circle moment,” as she became interested in theatre from watching productions growing up.

“These kids are in the shoes that I was in 10, 15 years ago,” Watson said.