Barnyard fun hits stage

An unusual cast of characters amused R.D. White Elementary School students Thursday morning, including pigs doing the cancan, baby chicks square-dancing and sheep wandering aimlessly.

These were just some of the dancing farm animals featured in the musical “E-I-E-I Oops!” performed for the school’s students and teachers.

The entertainers were members of the Hummingbirds, a musical performance group of first-, second- and third-graders at the school.

The play is set on Old McDonald’s farm, where all is well except for the fact that the sole cow on the farm refuses to moo.

This creates a problem, because while most of the farm animals noisily express themselves with quacks, oinks and hee-haws during the singing of “Old McDonald Had a Farm,” the cow is silent.

Because of the cow’s silence, the familiar song ends with students singing “E-I-E-I Oops” rather than “E-I-E-I-O.”

“We say ‘oops’ because the cow doesn’t moo,” said 8-year-old Aga Nogalska, who portrayed a pig in the play.

The rest of the farm animals try to cajole the cow into mooing by singing, dancing and telling jokes with other members of their species.

The pigs extolled the virtue of performing by singing, “Ham it up, you’ve got to ham it up, if you want to get by. Ham it up, you’ve got to ham it up, to have a home in our sty.”

Their song was peppered with animal-themed jokes.

“What do sheep use to carry their books?” 8-year-old Arvin Sarkissian said.

His twin brother, Arin, said he didn’t know.

“In a baaack-pack,” Arvin answered.

The piglet performance ended with a slow piglet cancan.

A group of girls wearing yellow dresses, yellow feathered hats and cowboy boots pretended to be the baby chicks of the farm. They did a square dance and sang that they were the “cute chicks” of the farm, and smart chicks, too.

“It’s kind of fun to be sassy,” Chloë Howes, 9, said. “Because we’re kind of sassy and only thinking about ourselves.”

Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep sang, too, but it was the farm’s sole mule, played by Matilda Sinany, 9, who was able to diagnose the cow’s problem.

“The problem with this cow is clear, she doesn’t feel a part of the team. It’s obvious what this cow is feeling is a lack of self-esteem,” Matilda sang.

The farm animals joined together in showing the cow — played by 8-year-old Matthew Bejanian — with compliments. The cow responded with moos.

“I like it because I get to sing, I get to act, and I get to wear this costume,” said Annie Doody, 6, about being in the show.

Getting the school’s younger students involved in theater builds their confidence and prepares them to participate in the school’s musical group for older children, which is called the Bob Whites, said teachers Tracy Holland and Jennifer Epstein, who direct the group.

“It really gives them a sense of responsibility,” Holland said.