Ash Kwasny-Sandler was five years old when his family moved from Chicago to Boston. He says the first thing he remembers doing in his new city was going to the Boston Public Gardens to see the Wayne the Duck statue.
Her family underestimated the distance between their home and Boston Public Park and didn't get home until 9:00 p.m.—probably after Kwasny-Sandler had gone to bed—but she remembers the day vividly.
Now, at age 11, he's wrapping up his journey playing one of those ducks in the world premiere at the Wilcock Family Theater Feb. 17-12.
He said you will learn a lot from this show. "You see the attitude of the ducks, too, so when I see the ducks running around Boston now, I think, 'Give the ducks their way.'
Make Way for Ducklings: The musical follows a family of Mallard ducks on their journey through Boston to find the "perfect home" before they are born. Sandra B. Eskin and Michael J. Written by Bobbitt, the play is based on the 1941 children's book of the same name.
Boston native Maya Ettinger, who plays the musical instrument Puck, said she grew up reading "Make Way for Ducks" every year and taking a photo of herself at the statue in Boston Public Park on the first day of school.
For Ettinger, the show was "fun" to make because of its strong storytelling and "all the Boston humor."
"When we play, there are jokes that people in Florida or anywhere else don't get," Ettinger said. "It's great to attend events where I live."
Although Ettinger and Kwasny-Sandler choreographer Joy Clark didn't move to Boston until she began attending the Boston Conservatory for graduate school, Clark "feels like a Bostonian in terms of the city's theater community."
Many of the cast of Make Way for Ducklings are Boston natives, Clark said, bringing the story to life.
"No one can tell the story of Boston like the people who live here," Clark said.
Clarke said his "partner in crime" is Emily Quinn, the artistic director of the Wheelock Family Theater and "in the way of a duck." Rani became an artistic director in 2018 because she wanted to be a part of the first theater experience for young people.
As a result, Rani's favorite show is a student matinee at the theater. Audiences were not only happy to be on the walk but were often seeing the show for the first time, which the Queen said was "useful and exciting".
"It often feels like a pre-show at a rock concert," says Queen.
Although Clarke has been on the show for several years, she said Make Way for the Docs was her first professional show that featured younger rather than mature actors. He calls it a "breath of fresh air" as he learns from the young people he works with.
Clark believes that every creative person should create for young people at some point in their lives because they "go back to the basics" and it's not too "pretty". . Youth work reminds us of the "purpose" of art.
"[Working with youth] keeps me grounded," Clark says. “This is why we do what we do. Because the act of pretending, the act of telling a story that's not yours, but that you're living in a different situation, creates empathy, sparks creativity, sparks imagination, and that's what I was. I have been working all my life. What I do every day."
The full force of the story is that Clarke "never appears" rather than "walks into a room with young people."
Rani said at a recent student performance that the audience chanted "duck" at the end of the play, which was "very exciting" to hear. But Ettinger found it hard not to smile as the students were enthralled by the show.
Although it can be difficult, Ettinger said performing at the student matinee was "a lot of fun" because many of the audience's first impressions are of musical theater. She remembers watching her older sister play Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods, which inspired her to take up acting.
"Sometimes I play live theater for people who have never seen it before or a million times," Ettinger says. "What an amazing feeling to be able to share this with everyone."
Make Way for Ducklings: The Musical was originally slated to open in the spring of 2022 at the Wilcock Family Theater, but Rennie said the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at Omicron changed those plans. Clark now says that the show's subject matter is "really important."
Clark says the ducklings spend a lot of time trying to stop their parents' arguments, which he sees as a commentary on "the struggle between belief systems in society" or "the number of people who have lost the habit of being good people." Since the year of the pandemic, everyone has had to take care of themselves and their loved ones.
"This show is a reminder of what home really means, not just about feeling safe where you are, but about who you're with and how you can be kind to others," Clarke said.
