Posted April 12, 2023
An eighth grader from Hudson will be performing in the Minneapolis-based Children’s Theatre Company’s production of “An American Tail The Musical.”
El Kost, who attends the online River Falls eSchool, will be in the CTC production as an orphan named Sigfried and ensemble cast member.
The “American Tail” musical is based on a movie that came out in 1986. Kost described this new musical adaptation noting that “in the original movie it had very stereotypical immigrants and so now our amazing writers and lyricists have gone through and made it even more inclusive than it was before.”
Kost has had roles in the Ashland Productions shows “Shrek,” “Mary Poppins, Jr.,” “Newsies, Jr.” and “Urinetown.” Kost also has been in “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” for CTC.
Kost said that balancing school and play practice can be hard to manage but once you get the pace of it, it can get way easier.
“It has to be the community around it,” Kost said about acting. “I’ve seen shows ever since I was little and seeing the people on stage but also seeing them after and how close everyone was really got me into doing theater.”
Practicing for productions is almost a part-time job. Most weekday practices are around five hours. Weekend practices are about nine hours with Mondays being the only day Kost has off.
“An American Tail The Musical” runs from April 25-June 18 at CTC’s UnitedHealth Group Stage, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis. Tickets may be purchased online at childrenstheatre.org/AmericanTail or by calling the box office at (612) 874-0400.
The article may be found online at https://uwrfjournalism.org/2023/04/an-american-tail/.