A First-Time Jellybean's Secret to Preventing Stage Fright

We finished our fall Jellybeans training program for kindergarten through second-graders earlier this month with back-to-back performances of "Hansel and Gretel" at Yorktown Stage. While all of our casts did just wonderfully, we are especially proud of our youngest performers, the brand new Jellybeans. Because children become eligible to do shows when they enter kindergarten, the fall performances are when they grace the stage for the very first time. I sat down with Evelynn Beaton, 5, right before the curtain opened.

Evelynn, who was the Sand Fairy in Cast C, described her role for me before the show. "She sprinkles sand on the children when they're sleeping," she said. I asked if she had butterflies in her stomach, and she told me, "No, because my sister's with me." 

It turns out that the secret to combatting stage fright is to perform with your big sister! Evelynn told me about how she came to see her sister in "Snow White" last winter and "Anne of Green Gables" last spring.  "I thought she was a good singer," Evelynn said.  "Then Lillian said, 'Wanna try a show?' and I said, 'Yes.'"

Lillian was Cast C's owl, but, in her words: "I like the gingerbread costume because it's comfy." 

The Beaton sisters are the second and third gingerbread cookies from the right. 

I caught up with the girls and their father David after the show. The most fun part about performing for our first-time Jellybean Evelynn? "Staying with my sister."

For Lillian, it was this: "I liked at the end when all the gingerbread cookies come out of the oven as neighborhood children."

David shared with me why he and his wife decided to enroll their younger daughter in the program.

"At first Lillian was the only one in the family old enough to do the play," he said. "Her first show was 'Snow White.' She was excited, coming home and talking about the people she met and how fun it was to act. She began singing the songs around the house and teaching the songs to her sister. Then Evelynn, of course, was singing the Snow White songs, and we just thought, "Oh, my gosh, as soon as she's old enough, the first thing we want to do is get her into Random Farms. It's really, really cute, just a great program. We could not be happier with it."