Beloved Anne of Green Gables
makes transition to stage musical

By Jennifer Pencek

One of Emily Margaret Ceres’ friends is a redheaded girl who enjoys a good adventure as much as spending time with her adoptive family. This particular redhead is also 100 years old.

Ceres, 10, of Boalsburg isn’t hanging out with her great-grandmother. Her friend is Anne Shirley, who has been entertaining fans for a century in a series of eight books—starting with Anne of Green Gables in 1908—by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Ceres celebrated her birthday in November with an Anne Shirley-themed party, watching the 1985 television mini-series Anne of Green Gables and part of Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel.

“It’s fun pretending to be somebody you have things in common with,” she says. “You can be imaginative and pretend you’re friends with [Anne], and you’re walking down the street talking to each other.”

For Christmas, Ceres’ parents bought her tickets to the TheatreworksUSA musical adaptation of Anne of Green Gables scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, February 10, in Eisenhower Auditorium. Joining Emily Margaret at the Center for the Performing Arts presentation will be her parents Elizabeth and Robert, as well as her 5-year-old sister Cordelia Marie.

Emily Margaret read most of the books in the series with her mother last year. For Elizabeth Ceres, revisiting the series she read as a child has reinforced her love of the stories.

“I like the example she sets—her loyalty to her ideas, her family and friends, and her enthusiasm for nature and all people,” Elizabeth Ceres says. “She’s such a great role model, and there aren’t many role models these days.”

The family is looking forward to the musical version of the story of the 12-year-old orphan who turns an idyllic Prince Edward Island community upside-down with her indomitable imagination.

The plot concerns Matthew Cuthbert and his sister, Marilla, who prepare to open their home to an orphan who can help out on the farm. But when Matthew goes to the train station to greet the adopted boy, the only child waiting is a girl with all of her possessions in a carpetbag. The child, who has never had a real home, is determined to stay with the Cuthberts at their green-gabled cottage.

The musical premiered in a critically acclaimed, sold-out limited engagement at off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Theatre in spring 2007 and began its national tour in fall 2007.

Anne of Green Gables is about love, family, and finding a place to call your own. The chance to tell such an engaging story was one Peter Flynn, the musical’s director, didn’t want to pass up. Flynn previously directed the family shows Junie B. Jones and Henry & Mudge for TheatreworksUSA.

“I really have loved creating for younger hearts and minds,” he says. “There’s no edit button. With my son [Hudson Rafael, now 4], even at 6 months old it was fun to have him sitting on my lap, seeing what keeps him interested. Since then, he’s been along for the ride. Children are so compassionately candid. It comes with no toxicity or malice. My experiences [with family theatre] have really improved my directing skills. Really keeping the heart and mind engaged is universal.”

Also universal, Flynn says, is the appeal of Anne of Green Gables. While initially geared toward pre-teens and young adults, it has grown to be loved by people of all ages around the world. The Japanese, for example, have embraced the story.

In her online article “Exchange? Canada and Japan’s Anne of Green Gables,” Sonja Arntzen, a scholar in classical Japanese language and literature, theorizes the Japanese have taken to the story so intensely due to commonalities among the culture and story, such as morality, sincerity, and the prominence of natural imagery.

When Anne relinquishes her scholarship at the end of the first book to assist Marilla after Matthew’s death, the decision resonates with Japanese readers, Arntzen writes.

“Her decision can be considered an act of filial piety, made all the more poignant because she is an adopted child,” Arntzen notes. “Adoption was common within the large multi-family networks of traditional Japan. To sacrifice an opportunity of one’s own to take care of a parent rings true with all that is considered noble in traditional Japanese morality, and while an adopted child was expected to abide by the same code as birth children, there was a recognition that full and willing compliance with that code by an adopted child was a touching expression of moral character.”

The same passion for Anne of Green Gables can be found in central Pennsylvania. Anita Ditz, children’s librarian at Schlow Centre Region Library in State College, says anticipation surrounding the February 10 performance is helping boost numbers of patrons checking out the books.

“It’s an excellent story,” she says. “It has a plot line, and it makes you an intelligent reader. That’s part of getting engaged. It’s a book parents remember reading.”

Rebecca Hirsch of State College didn’t read the series as a child. But she likes the idea of discovering the books with her oldest daughter, 9-year-old Anna.

“They had been recommended to me by one of the librarians at the State College library,” Rebecca Hirsch says. “She said they were some of her favorite books from childhood. I’ve been waiting for Anna to be old enough, and she just loved them and took off, so I started reading them, too.”

Anna has two younger sisters—Eva, 7, and Ellie, 3. Rebecca home schools Anna and Eva, and will do the same for Ellie when she’s old enough. As part of the curriculum, she’s continually on the lookout for “really good literature,” which seems to fit with Anne of Green Gables.

Recently, Rebecca Hirsch has been reading Anne’s House of Dreams, while her oldest daughter is devouring Anne of Ingleside.

“She loves books, and she’s a fast reader, but what I find is a lot of children’s books are shorter,” Rebecca Hirsch says. “For me, the Anne of Green Gables books are nice because they’re dense books and hold her interest.”

Along with reading the adventures of Anne Shirley, Harry Potter is also on Anna’s mind. She’s re-reading the wizard series for the ninth time.

Anne Shirley doesn’t have magical powers, but she does have the gift of keeping readers entranced.

“I like to find out what happens next,” Anna Hirsch says. “I really like how she likes nature and gives things fancy names.”

Kidz Connections, which is free and open to ticket holders, begins one hour before the show and features craft-oriented activities for children.