Teens have a blast in outer space musical

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Maya Braithwaite, (from left), Emiko George and Marisa Baldwin work on a new song with Mike O'Mara, director of music, at the piano. | Photo by Peter Wallis

Updated: December 13, 2011 6:56PM

Nora Foutty can relate intimately to her role in “Grace Shapiro, Space Hero!” the Music Institute of Chicago’s musical theater production premiering this week.

“Grace is an incredibly responsible girl who is very bossy to her twin brother and I can be bossy too, to my twin, Ben,” admits Foutty. “Sometimes, I imagine her twin is a slacker even though mine is not, but I try to imagine her Michael as my brother and the complicated relationships of having a twin, which may be a little easier for me than maybe other people who aren’t twins.”

The 14-year-old Evanston Township High School freshman has been a member of the Music Institute of Chicago for five years and an avid dancer since the age of 6. She is excited about the Institute’s upcoming performance where she will star in the lead role for a few scenes before handing the part over to her fellow teen actors.

Lots of stars

“We switch parts throughout the show, a lot of people get to be a lot of different characters,” Foutty explained. “I play Grace in the first two scenes then back up superheroes near the end.”

The original play was written by acting director Matt Boresi, and musical scores by music director Mike O’Mara with choreography by Cher Schwartz.

It’s a story of a teen babysitter know-it-all and her two brothers, Michael and John, and their parents who are NASA scientists, explained O’Mara. The parents build rockets for a living and are building a secret rocket in their garage.

They leave Grace in charge when they go out for the evening but the brothers get into the garage, climb aboard the rocket ship, the door shuts behind them and they blast off. They crash land on the planet of Mondo run by the evil Queen Mina, which sets off a series of adventures that leads them to a planet with people called wakkas, similar to teddy bears. Grace convinces these people to fight against Queen Mina.

Saving teddy bears

“The rest of the show is about gaining resistance and fighting for the future of earth and the teddy bear folks,” O’Mara said. “They win, of course.”

Hannah Kaplan, 14, of Evanston, plays the evil Queen Mina.

“I’ve actually played quite a few evil parts,” Kaplan said of her eight years of performing with the Music Institute of Chicago, “and it’s not as difficult as it sounds. Acting to me is knowing yourself so well that you can relate and compare yourself to other characters and really embody them. Through MIC, I’ve developed my identity.”

The avid singer participates in four choirs at school, takes private voice lessons and plans to pursue acting, which she describes as her true passion, as a career. But for now, she’s happy with her MIC family as is fellow actor, Kyle Lueptow.

“A lot of my closest friends are there,” said the 17-year-old Evanston Township High School junior honors student. “It’s surpassed the student/teacher relationship — people in the company almost become a second family.”