Tomorrow’s Hope: Paddington Arts Makes Annie Their Own

By George Clyde

The opening night of Paddington Arts’ production of the musical Annie was a celebration of what Paddington Arts has meant for so many in this community. Parents, many of whom had been through the program as children, greeted each other with warm smiles and gathered under the comfort of familiarity to watch their kids perform.  “It’s a sense of belonging,” said Melissa, who joined the program when she was 6 and now helps teach, “When you come here you feel a part of something, and I think that’s really important for young people…It just feels like home.” 

The play is loosely based on the original plot of Annie, but the script is new and a lot of the story has changed as well. It features explosive dance routines and musical numbers ranging from Drill remixes of It’s a Hard Knock Life to Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal. The story starts out with Annie in the orphanage, longing to find her parents one day. She escapes to look for them but eventually returns back to the orphanage and hatches a plan to get the abusive head, Ms. Hannigan, arrested. The plan ends up working and the orphanage is reformed and renamed as Paddington Arts. 

The circumstances were made up, but the theme of young kids searching for a home rang true to what Paddington Arts has provided for many young children in this area whose families wouldn’t have been able to afford other programs. “People talk about young people just hanging on the corners smoking and what not. They don’t have places like this,” Steve Roberts said, one of the staff members at Paddington Arts, “Do you know how many kids are out there that have nowhere to go, no interaction with parents?…Young people need places like this.”

What was really special about this production was that it brought together kids across all age ranges and included children with hidden disabilities like autism and ADHD, sometimes fairly severe. “It’s hard work. This is one of the hardest projects I’ve done with Paddington Arts,” Eldora said, the script writer and director of the play. “I don’t think I could stand here and tell you everything that we’ve learned. It’s a lot.” 

Eldora ran through story after story of hurdles that the team had to overcome in order to make the play happen. One kid had an emotional breakdown when he wasn’t able to come in first for rehearsal. Another kid took three weeks to be comfortable sitting behind the curtain and even longer to get comfortable without her wool hat that she wears every day. She now has one of the bigger roles in the play. “Month number 1 and 2 it was like we’re never gonna pull this off,” Eldora said. “The journey we’ve been on to get to this point, it’s amazing.” 

While the older kids were hesitant at first to do a play with the younger ones, many of whom had disabilities and took much longer to get the hang of simple lines and directions, they’ve now formed a real bond with each other. Everybody involved with the play expressed how heart-warming it’s been to see the older ones embrace the younger ones and support them when they need help. “These young people have broken barriers, formed bonds, and where differences were not accepted, they have been celebrated,” Eldora said in her opening speech, “It was incredible to see how mainstream youth and those with hidden disabilities supported each other, learned from one another, and grew together.”

For some with disabilities, Paddington Arts is the only place they have to work at something and be able to express themselves in front of others. One father pulled Eldora aside and told her, wiping away tears, how much of an impact this play has had on his child’s ability to express himself. Another parent told her “I can’t believe how extroverted my child has become. He’s like an entirely new person.”

As the play went on, the invisible wall between acting and reality became thinner and thinner. Here were these young kids acting out a play about finding a home amongst each other amidst constant turmoil in their lives, and here they were at Paddington Arts, finding that very home.

“The orphanage still stands today under the new name of Paddington Arts,” Annie announced at the end, as the fictional world began to blend in with reality. After applause and bows, Asia, the actress who played Annie, whose two younger siblings and mother have all been a part of Paddington Arts, comes out on stage to sing the theme one last time.

Looking into the audience, with a few teary eyed parents and a stillness throughout the room, she sang the song’s hopeful lyrics one final time: “The sun’ll come out tomorrow. So you gotta hang on till tomorrow, come what may. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow. You’re always a day away.”