Kids get hooked, line and sinker to ‘Rainbow Fish’

By Nicole Lord
Staff Writer

A cast of four performed the play “The Rainbow Fish” Feb. 7 to a GPAC audience made up of elementary school children. A flyer had been sent out to all the local elementary schools to invite them to the show. The play started at 10 a.m. and lasted for about an hour.

The cast of the show included Aimee Cherry, who played Rainbow Fish; Candice Gould, who played Blue Fish and Joe Digennars who played the Green Fish. Mandy Hinman played the narrator.

The stage had been set up to display minimal props. The “magic mirror,” a treasure chest and some seaweed cutouts were among these.

Children anxiously awaited the show saying “What’s taking so long?” and “When’s it gonna start?” When the house lights went down, the excitement in the building went up a level.

“What do you know, humans right here under the sea!” was one of the first lines from the narrator. She started to tell the story of Rainbow Fish who was “the prettiest fish under the sea.” She made her way across the sea on a quest to find the wise octopus and ask how she could be happy. The audience was asked to help along the way.

The young children in the audience were asked numerous times to say a special chant to the magic mirror to reveal the “fish self” of the characters.

“Mirror Mirror show to me, who’s the prettiest fish in the sea.” They also enjoyed the songs by clapping along.

The favorite character of the crowd was the shark that was also played by Joe Digennars. He was portrayed as a 50’s kind of guy or “the Fonz” of the sea.

At the end of the play the moral of the story was put into a song. The wise octopus and her backup dancers sang “To be joyful you must share your gift.”

“I loved the show,” one young girl said as the audience filed out. A show like “Rainbow Fish” is not hard for a young child to appreciate.