Theatre for Everyone with UVU’s Tomato Plant Girl in Orem, Utah

By Katrina Dawn

Tomato Plant Girl by Wesley Middleton, directed by Teresa Dayley Love may have been written as a show for young audiences, but the production done by Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah is a piece everyone should see. For those who don’t know ‘theatre for young audiences’ is a tag given to shows specifically written with young children in mind. With the understanding of the short attention span children can have, young audience shows tend to run an hour to an hour and a half: Tomato Plant Girl leans to the shorter side with a run time of one hour. Tomato Plant Girl is performed in UVU’s brand new theatre building (their first main stage show doesn’t even open until April 12), which is gorgeous.

Little Girl (Cedi Christensen) stars as our main character in Tomato Plant Girl. She has recently moved from Theretown to Heretown, a much fancier town where rules are important, and any foreigners are suspicious.  With Little Girl still being fairly new in town, she only has her best friend Bossy (Kat Hawley). Bossy has a tomato plant that needs to be watered or it will die. Little Girl has been forbidden from touching the tomato plant. When Bossy leaves to visit her Grandmother, Little Girl tries to save the tomato plant. In a cosmic accident, Little Girl accidentally pulls up the tomato plant. With the plant, up pops Tomato Plant Girl (Marta Myers). In the coming days, Little Girl tries to teach Tomato Plant Girl about friendship, but Little Girl ends up learning a thing or two herself.

Even though this show was written for children, it is a piece anyone can take something from. Honestly, toward the end I teared up a little, which is very strange for me. I blame it mostly on the performance given by Christensen. Coming into this show, I was not expecting that much emotion from the actors. Those low moments of Christensen beautifully contrast the constant high energy, naivety, and optimism played by Myers.

Through Little Girl teaching Tomato Plant Girl, audience members can also learn about please, sorry, growing up, and friendship. As is necessary in any good plot, there needs to be opposition. Hawley covers this area brilliantly. Her pink tutu, hat, and matching bag give her the look of any fairy princess little girl. The way Myers handles her Barbies is just the way a little girl would: fixing her hair and posing her just right.

In addition to these three characters, onstage the entire show are two Kokens or story helpers (Bradie Anderson and Lizzy Jensen). Let me tell you, they are adorable. Dressed in yellow rain jackets and boots, Anderson and Jensen help portray the story with sound effects, interactions, and reactions with the characters, as well as portraying the sun and moon.

As you may have noticed through the many mentions of them, I really liked the costumes designed by Dayana Kay. The set design is also well done. Tomato Plant Girl is played in a thrust stage setting (audience on three sides) therefore, all set pieces must keep the actors visible from all the possible angles. Madeline Ashton accomplished this as well as giving the set a childlike feel to it.
Special shout out to Lizzy Jensen, the understudy for all five of these fantastic women.

To say I liked Tomato Plant Girl is a no brainer. Theatre for Young Audiences can often get a bad rap, which it shouldn’t. Especially when a production such as this one comes around. From age three to three hundred everyone can take away something valuable from UVU’s Tomato Plant Girl.

Utah Valley University presents Tomato Plant Girl by Wesley Middleton.
Utah Valley University Bastian Theatre in the Noorda Center for Performing Arts, 800 W. University Parkway, Orem, Utah, 84058
March 15-16, 2018 6:30 PM, Sensory Friendly Performance March 16, 2018 2:00 PM
Tickets: $5
Contact: 801.863.8797, tickets@uvu.edu
UVU School of the Arts Facebook Page
Tomato Plant Girl Facebook Event

https://www.uvu.edu/arts/events/

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