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Bringing the story to life

Photo by Deb Gau The weasels, stoats and ferrets of the Wild Wood make some sinister plans in one scene of “The Wind in the Willows,” a musical being performed by the SMSU Drama Club this weekend.

MARSHALL — They seem like unlikely friends: a water rat, a badger, a shy mole, and a wealthy toad obsessed with driving cars. But the relationships between the animal characters really form the heart of the Southwest Minnesota State University Drama Club’s latest student-run production.

“It’s a show about unconditional friendship,” said SMSU senior and Drama Club member Mary Jean Porter.

The Drama Club will be performing Douglas Post’s “The Wind in the Willows,” a musical based on the classic children’s book by Kenneth Grahame. Performances will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the SMSU Fine Arts Theatre.

“The Wind in the Willows” is the Drama Club’s second show of the year, after “Clue: the Musical” in January, Porter said. “The Wind in the Willows” follows the adventures of Rat, Mole and Badger as they try to keep their impulsive friend Toad out of trouble. After Toad finds himself in jail for stealing a motor car, the friends need to take back Toad Hall from a crew of weasels, ferrets and stoats.

“It follows the original book very faithfully,” Porter said. The show has both a cozy feel and plenty of humor. “The comedy isn’t awkward, and it’s really family oriented,” she said.

Cast members said the core of the show is the friendship between the main characters. Bryn Mongeau and Joy Krosschell said their characters Rat and Mole are always ready to help their friends — even if they can sometimes be hard to deal with, like Toad.

Toad’s outsized personality is one of the fun things about playing the role, said Colton Jensen.

“I really enjoy being Toad, just being able to be so high-energy all the time,” Jensen said. “I think Toad tries hard to be a good friend in all the wrong ways – he spends money on them, he wants to show them the world.” However, in the end Toad learns more of what being a good friend really means, he said.

Mongeau said the dynamic among the cast members worked out really well. As she and

Jensen got to know Krosschell, it fit the play, where newcomer Mole makes friends with Rat and Toad.

For the cast, playing animal characters meant thinking about how different forest creatures would act and move. Both Mongeau and Krosschell got some inspiration from their pets. Krosschell said Mole’s personality reminded her a little of her dog. “He’s just a homebody, and he likes to eat and nap,” she said.

Bringing the story to life also meant getting creative with choreography, and the costuming to transform cast members into animals ranging from ducks to hedgehogs. Many cast members are playing multiple roles. Brady Berg said the quick costume changes he goes through to portray a horse, a stoat, a field mouse and a human are a bit tricky, but they all have different personalities. “It helps that they all have different accents.”

Domonique McPhail said she even learned to walk on stilts for one of the characters she plays.

“That’s been a challenge to try and learn,” she said. “It was terrifying at first,” but after a couple of days, she could take steps by herself.

If you go

Performances will be at 7:30 on Feb. 25-27, and at 2 p.m. Feb. 28. Tickets are only available at the door, and will be $5 for an adult, or $3 for a student with a Mustang I.D.

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