On Thursday evening, March 7, the Valley Elementary School’s sixth grade class, including a fifth grade chorus participating and cheering them on, presented their humorous colorfully- regaled musical production of “Tut, Tut!” by David Hudson and Denver Casado. The beat-by-beat press brochure describes the action as, “inspired by the life of King Tut (the 10-year-old who became King of Egypt) with a touch of Mark Twain’s ‘The Prince and the Pauper.’”
The story begins with young Prince Tut who is bored of the royal life, so he wanders into the streets of the city looking for adventure. Suddenly, he meets a peasant who looks like him! They concoct a plan to trade places for three days. But when the king dies and Prince Tut must ascend the throne, their plan goes terribly awry.
In the title role of the Prince soon-to-be King Tut, Cody Cluff shines, as does Norah Sahotra as Seti conspiring in their deceptive plot. His brother AAT, played with gusto by Luke Hoyt, along with Kaleb Heaton as Master Sen and Makenzi Sorensen as Mia, portray the officers of the Royal Court. The energetically dancing Camel Vendors of Tayson Bettridge (C), Klay Heaton (A), Dalton Schreiner (M), Gavin MacInnes (E) and Bron Gengler (L) are terrific in their trio of interspersed versions of “The Camel Song.” Lily Heaton (Hapu) and Dalton Schreiner (Haji) are especially intimidating during Tut’s time in the the slammer with no ID! Fifth grade Vendors, also, make notably funny market bazaar contributions to Prince Tut’s streetwise education: Jace Young (Date), Jack Jennings (Fish) and Kassidee Sharkey (Bread).
Director Lynette Lamb, fifth grade and Language Arts teacher, describes the diligence that accompanied her performers’ creative journey, “They got their scripts in December. They had to have everything memorized by January. We went on-stage to start directing them where they should be. And the kids just took and memorized all their lines, and learned their script inside and out. So, they did fabulous!”
“We had parents from last year do all of our scenery and our costumes. Marianne Leigh is responsible for all our costumes. And just a wonderful community up here! And then, the kids were their own stage crew. So, I thought that was good.” As did the enthusiastic audience of family and friends with their raucous applause and whistles during their standing ovation!
