Mary Poppins to host children’s tea party
Claire Crump will sip tea (or lemonade) with children in her role as the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious nanny at Basin Community Theatre’s Tea Time with Mary Poppins March 28. Tickets go on sale Friday.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
MOSES LAKE — She’s practically perfect in every way, and next month, some children will get to enjoy her magic in person.
As part of the leadup to its stage production of “Mary Poppins,” Basin Community Theatre will host Tea Time with Mary Poppins on March 28. Children can enjoy tea or lemonade with the star of the play, Claire Crump, in full costume. Crump will also lead a singalong and some crafts and take photos with the youngsters.
The idea was originally conceived as a mother-daughter tea, but BCT Producer Marion Wyman said dads, grandparents and sons are all welcome too. Children love seeing their favorite characters close up, Wyman said.
“I took my granddaughter to see ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (on stage),” Wyman said. “The next day was Sunday, and I took her to church with me and (the actress who played) Belle was at church. My granddaughter just stopped in her tracks, and she took a breath, and she gasped ‘Belle!’ ... Our hope is that (children) come to the show and go ‘I met her! She’s flying! I have a picture with her!’”
Other cast members will be there to serve in period costume, Wyman said, but probably won’t be recognizable as their characters.
The children will make bracelets and color kites, Crump said. They can also print off a picture from BCT’s website and color it, and those will be entered in a drawing. The winner will receive two tickets to the play.
Tickets go on sale Friday. Early bird tickets bought Friday and Saturday are $5 off; the regular price begins on Sunday. There’s room for 120 people, both children and adults, Wyman said.
Crump is no stranger to princesshood, she said. As a Moses Lake High School choir student, she participated in the choir’s Enchanted Evening events where students charmed children as Disney characters.
“I was always a princess,” she said. “It's so fun to get to connect on that level. As someone on stage, you hope that you're creating magic, but being able to do this kind of thing, you're kind of bringing the magic in and around people. It's going to be really fun.”
More information and tickets are available at www.basincommunitytheatre.com.