“˜Annie Get Your Gun’ tour gives cast opportunities for learning, fun

  Wilshire Theater The Broadway musical "Annie Get Your
Gun" is coming to the Wilshire Theater from Feb. 27 to March 4 for
eight performances.

By Sandy Yang
Daily Bruin Contributor

Actress Gracie Winchester’s day starts with a sound check.
Next she attends school from 11 a.m to four in the afternoon.

In a few hours, she will play little sister Nellie Oakley in the
newest revival of the Broadway musical “Annie Get Your
Gun.” She performs this role about four days a week, opposite
actress Marilu Henner (“Taxi”) who plays the title
character.

Winchester sounds like a college student making promising
strides in an acting career, except she’s only 8 years
old.

At a time when kids are playing tetherball during recess and
memorizing multiplication tables, Winchester, along with 7-year-old
Shadoe Brandt and 9-year-old Ainsley Binnicker, is travelling
around the country performing in Barry and Fran Weissler’s
national tour of “Annie Get Your Gun.”

Since Winchester’s schedule sounds busier than that of
someone three times her age, some may imagine a pressuring stage
mom standing behind the scenes and wonder who would put a third
grader up to the task of performing and travelling while keeping up
with schoolwork. But Winchester makes it clear that being a part of
this production is her dream and she’s more than happy for
the opportunity.

  Wilshire Theater Tom Wopat is Frank
Butler of The Cowboys in "Annie Get Your Gun." “It’s
all fun to me. “¦ When I was really little, I had a dream I
could do this and always love it. It feels so good to do a dream I
used to have,” said Winchester in a phone interview from
Portland where “Annie Get Your Gun” was playing before
coming to Los Angeles.

“Some people say, “˜Oh, I hate rehearsal,’ but
I love rehearsal,” she continued. “If I didn’t
have to do anything, I would be bored, but when I go to a show, I
talk to everybody and I love every second of it.”

Winchester not only welcomes her busy schedule, she treasures
the travelling that goes along with the realization of her dream
““ the opportunity to see firsthand the places and sites she
would find in a textbook.

“It’s really fun because in school, we don’t
go on so many field trips,” Winchester said. “I can see
all this stuff I’ve never seen before.”

“All this stuff” refers to American monuments and
sites that company tutor Ron Kidd takes his students to see every
time they’re in a new city. So far, the young actors have
gotten to ring the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and see the U.S.
Mint in Denver. They even got to throw tea leaves into the Boston
Harbor in a lesson about the Boston Tea Party.

Kidd commented that the hands-on history lessons have been so
successful thus far that some of his students have excelled beyond
their grade level.

“I have teachers who tell me they wished all the kids had
gone on tour,” Kidd said.

For the former middle school drama and reading teacher, being a
company tutor also allows him to act in big productions.

“I’m lucky to marry my two passions of teaching and
theater,” said Kidd, who has played the dual roles for other
national tours such as “The Will Rogers Follies,”
“The Sound of Music” (with Marie Osmond) and
“Busker Alley.”

For “Annie Get Your Gun,” Kidd is an understudy for
three roles, including Buffalo Bill, and has had the chance to
perform in the eight months the show has already toured, while
maintaining a 10- to 15-week school schedule for his students.

In the same vein of the cast and crew’s touring schedule,
“Annie Get Your Gun” tells the story of legendary
female sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who traveled around the country
demonstrating her special skills. This revival of “Annie Get
Your Gun” stars Henner as the title character and Tom Wopat
(“Cybill,” “The Dukes of Hazard”) as Frank
Butler ““ Annie’s rival and love interest.

Coincidentally, “Annie Get You Gun,” a popular
Broadway show that debuted in the ’40s, composed by Irving
Berlin and starring Ethel Merman, was the musical theater
production that originated the concept of a national tour. The
touring performance, which starred Mary Martin as Annie, made the
then-young Broadway talent a star for coming years as she performed
in several Rodgers and Hammerstein productions in the
’50s.

The original “Annie Get Your Gun” marked the first
time theater wasn’t confined to the stages of New York.
People around the country enjoyed the legend of Annie Oakley set to
big Broadway tunes like “There’s No Business Like Show
Business.”

Based on a glimpse of Winchester and Kidd’s lives, the
popular Broadway song could speak some truth. But not everything is
ideal when you’re travelling so much, Kidd said.

“Though they have each other, they’re not with
peers; there are no classrooms or playgrounds and all the things
that go on in school,” Kidd said. “Sometimes,
we’re like mole people. Our classroom could be down in a
cellar and we have to find good lighting. We have to unpack
everything and make the room as comfortable as possible.”

But they manage Kidd said.

“I try to keep consistency with gimmicks like putting up a
flag one of the kids draws, and we start off with the pledge of
allegiance,” Kidd said. “We put some artwork on the
wall and it could feel like school ““ or home
again.”

Winchester says she misses school sometimes, but when she thinks
of the experience of performing for so many different audiences and
visiting so many cities, each with something unique to offer, she
feels happy even when she’s away from her family and friends
back home in Florida.

“My dad’s coming up to L.A. next week,” said
Winchester, who’s never been to Los Angeles.
“We’ll just have lots of fun and explore
everything.”

THEATER: “Annie Get Your Gun” is
playing at the Wilshire Theater, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., for eight
performances from Feb. 27 to Mar. 4. Tickets are $42 to $67 and are
available through Ticketmaster.