Budding Actors Perform 'James and the Giant Peach'

Patch Whiz Kids of the Week

The cast, directors, composers and technicians of a theatrical adaptation of the children's classic book James and the Giant Peach: 

Finnegan Paquette as James Henry Trotter. 

Max Katz-Christy as Old Man, Shark, Captain, Cloud Man, Townsperson 1. 

Molly Katz-Christy as Aunt Spiker, Officer 1, Townsperson 2.

Erica Jaquith as Aunt Sponge, Shark, Officer 2, Cloud Woman, Townsperson 3. 

Shayla Gottlieb as Miss Spider. 

Finn Saunders-Zurn as Centipede. 

Theodora Lim as Green Grasshopper. 

Sienna Rouse as Ladybug. 

Caleb Messier as Earthworm. 

Jenny Vernick as Shark, Cloud Woman. 

Katie Gradowski on piano. 

Nina Katz-Christy and Sarah and Brenna Lipset for technical support. 

Accomplishment: The children acted out the popular book by British author Roald Dahl after attending a two-week camp directed by three high school girls. 

How they pulled it off: For two weeks, Molly Katz-Christy, Jenny Vernick and Erica Jaquith taught children how to act, memorize lines and sing. They played acting games, built sets and rehearsed for their Sept. 1 show, which was well attended by their families and friends. 

Children's engineering and arts collective Parts and Crafts hosted Camp Center Stage at First Presbyterian Church, in West Somerville. 

On stage, James and his new insect friends pretended to cross the Atlantic Ocean inside a magical giant peach. They fought off hunger, cloud people and sharks- and occasionally broke out into song. 

The acting shined at certain points in the play. 

"We're lost! The end has come!," cried a dramatic Miss Spider as the characters realized they had drifted out to see. 

But by spinning a web, she catches seagulls that carry the crew all the way to New York City, where each one of them finds a happy end.