The sun might be about to come out on exciting acting careers for Toowoomba teenagers Emma Johnson and Lauren Baryla.
Next month the two 13-year-old girls will share the curly red wig of one of the most loved characters in musical history – little orphan Annie.
They’re leading a local cast of more than 90 performers in the Toowoomba Choral Society’s 2016 production of Annie at The Empire theatre, from September 9 to 11. Emma and Lauren landed their roles after auditioning with more than 100 other young hopefuls earlier this year.
For the past four years both Emma and Lauren have appeared in numerous Toowoomba Choral Society Youth Choir holiday productions, including Aladdin JR, The Little Mermaid, Honk! and most recently, Peter Pan JR. And they’re both super excited to be sharing the role of Annie.
“I was so excited to be chosen to play Annie,” Lauren said. “I’d been doing musicals since I was 10, and I thought, I’ll just give this audition a go.”
“I was sort of shocked to begin with,” Emma said. “I loved watching all the Annie movies and when I saw they were auditioning for the Annie musical, I said to my mum, ‘can I please audition, because I just love it!’”
Both girls say there is a lot of hard work in playing a lead role and by the time opening night rolls around they will have clocked up more than 100 hours of rehearsals over the course of two months.
According to Lauren, there are some fantastic surprises in store for audiences.
“One of them is Sandy, who is a real dog,” she said.
“At the moment she’s being trained for the show, and we’ve rehearsed with her a couple of times already.”
The popular musical, which is based on the Little Orphan Annie comic strip by Harold Gray, features much-loved songs including It’s a Hard Knock Life, Maybe, Tomorrow, Easy Street, Little Girls and I Don’t Need Anything But You.
The Toowoomba Choral Society’s production of Annie will be held at The Empire Theatre in Toowoomba from September 9-11 for two night shows and two matinees. Tickets cost $50 for adults, $25 for children, $45 for concession and $43 each for groups of more than six. Tickets are available online at www.empiretheatre.com.au or through the box office on 1300 655 299.
Photo: Lauren is on the left, Emma on the right
