Moorestown Theater Company Follows Yellow Brick Road

Emma Witkowski has a deal with her mom: If 9-year-old Emma takes her piano and voice lessons seriously, her mom will play a part in the (MTC) fall production of South Pacific.

They shook on it, Emma said, so her mom can't break the pact.

It would be her mother's first theater experience.

"She's too afraid to go on stage," said Emma. "She's shy."

Emma has no such qualms. Decked out as one of the flying monkeys in the MTC's summer stage production of The Wizard of Oz during a dress rehearsal Tuesday, she rattled off all the other shows she's done with MTC: Annie, High School Musical, and A Christmas Carol, among others.

The 9-year-old (9 1/2, technically) was one of 81 youths—from 6 to 17 years old—practicing at the on Main Street Tuesday under the watchful eye of Mark Morgan, producing artistic director.

He and his wife, Carol Ann Murray, and Murray's mother, Beverly Bennett, founded the MTC in 2003 and launched the summer stage in 2006 to cater to the company’s younger demographic.

Morgan used his experience at the summer stage in Upper Darby, Pa.—where Saturday Night Liveand 30 Rock star Tina Fey is an alum—as a template for the MTC summer stage.

What separates the Moorestown summer stage from countless other youth theater camps is it goes beyond the traditional “rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal” mode and educates the kids in the “basics of musical theater,” said Morgan. “We want them to know how to breathe properly when they sing. We want them to know how to tap dance, to do a shuffle. We always say, ‘There’s no homework, but you will learn.’”

The Wizard of Oz is the company’s third play this summer. It was preceded by  andAladdin last month.

Morgan’s son, Jack, 15, plays Scarecrow in the Oz production and has acted or played some part in just about every MTC/summer stage show since 2003—“one of the curses” of having a theatrically inclined father, Morgan joked.

Jack, who auditioned for the part, said his familiarity with The Wizard of Oz’s story helped him figure out the character, but added, “I still have to memorize the lines. I haven’t seen it that many times.”

Audiences will get six chances to see the show: 7 p.m. today (Wednesday); 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 7 p.m. Thursday; and 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Friday.

Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and teens and $8 for preteens. Buy tickets online atmoorestowntheatercompany.org or at the door.

The theater seats 300 and Morgan said he anticipates selling out some shows.

“With 81 kids in the cast, just families alone might sell out the evening shows,” he said.

Of those 81, about a dozen will be appearing on stage for the first time.

Morgan said he always gives the newbies one piece of advice before they go onstage opening night: “I tell them I did my first show 30 years ago and I still remember it. Just savor this moment, enjoy it. Don’t let it fly by. You’ll never have another first performance.”