A Different Kind of Life on the Road

When people talk about youthful actors, they often talk of lost childhoods.

Thirteen-year-old Lydia Ooghe doesn’t see it that way. She is one of two child actors playing Mary Lennox in “The Secret Garden,” opening Tuesday at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium for an eight-day run.

“I’m certainly not leading what people would call a normal life,” she said. “But right now, I wouldn’t say I’m missing out, because I’m just having different experiences.”

Ooghe has been part of a national touring company of about 55 cast and crew members for the past six months.

She took over the show’s starring role after Daisy Eagan, who won a Tony for it, left the cast in April, 1992. When the show closed on Broadway at the end of January this year, Ooghe joined the touring company. Because she’s only 13, Ooghe’s role is double cast, meaning that Demaree Alexander plays Mary on alternate nights.

One of the things Ooghe likes about touring is seeing places that are different from her hometown of Charlottesville, Va.

Places like Tempe, Ariz., where “everything was sort of orange. It was just very different,” compared to the green, rolling hills of Virginia, she said.

Ooghe describes the cast as a family.

“The cast members are very intelligent people, and they’re very bright and they’re very funny. They goof off a lot.”

For example, one night, Roger Bart, who portrays Dickon, stood in the wings where she could see him, but no one in the audience could. He wrapped his lips around a magnifying glass and shone a flashlight on it in such a way that the effect created an oversized mouth. She had a hard time holding her stage presence.

Ooghe will be on stage Tuesday and perform three other times in the run, which continues through Aug. 15 at the Civic, 300 E. Green St. Curtain times are 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15. Matinees are scheduled at 2 p.m. Saturday and Aug. 15. Tickets cost $35 and $45.