Acting Is The Perfect Match For The Middle Schooler’s Innate Talents

By Mara Soloway

Ellie Kummer has long entertained her family – parents Joseph and Kristen and siblings Ben, 15, Lexie, 10, and MacKenzie, 5 – at their Missouri City home. “Just one more,” she’d tell them as she sang and danced for them. In those early days, she chose songs from her first love, Barbie movies. Her tastes evolved to include pop music from Kristen’s playlists to songs from the Nutcracker and other musicals.

“I would tell my family they had to stay and watch me,” said the energetic seventh-grader. “I knew I was going to go into acting someday.”

From her debut in first grade as a Lady Bug soloist in the musical Bugz, Ellie has gone on to perform in the ensemble cast in 10 musical productions. Her first musical was Disney’s The Lion King Jr. at Inspiration Stage in Sugar Land when she was 10. The troupe performed a 15-minute version at the Junior Theater Festival (JTF) in Atlanta in 2016, James and the Giant Peach Jr. in 2017 and Xanadu Jr. in 2018. “It is amazing – JTF is like heaven for theater kids,” Ellie said.

Inspiration Stage’s creative director, Mandy Seymore-Sensat, directed, choreographed and costumed Lion King Jr. and finds it rewarding to watch her students grow as people and as actors. “Ellie is brilliant on stage. She keeps reaching for her goals and always pushes herself to shine,” Seymore-Sensat said.

Ellie credits Seymore-Sensat for advising her to never give up and for giving her “a place to be with other crazy people like me, a place to learn but also have fun along the way.”

At 13, Ellie is also flourishing in the theater group at Baines Middle School, which competes within Fort Bend ISD and at University Interscholastic League (UIL) events. Last fall the Baines Middle School theater group was named district champion in the Fort Bend ISD’s 2017 Middle School One-Act Play District Finals for its production of the one-act play, The Hundred Dresses. Among the individual students who won awards was Ellie for Best Actress, an impressive feat because this was her first straight (nonmusical) play and her first lead role.

Ellie played the title character Wanda, a Polish girl who moves to America with her father when her mother dies. Wanda is mercilessly teased by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. When Wanda’s drawing talent is revealed, students who teased her feel remorse. A student named Maddie decides she will never again stand by and do nothing when someone is being bullied.

To portray a shy, motherless girl who is uprooted from all she knows and is being bullied – and speak with a Polish accent – was a challenge for Ellie. “You have to think about what would she do and just practice and practice on being more like her,” Ellie said. “I’m not a shy, sweet Polish girl at all. I would never cry in front of people and I would always fight back.”

Kristin McNeely is the theater director at Baines. “Ellie stood out to me in sixth grade. It’s rare to see someone so interested in theater that you feel you can actually mold them into being a good actor or actress for high school,” McNeely said. “Ellie is an inspiration because she works so hard and loves what she does. She can really bring a character to life on stage.”

McNeely has helped Ellie see the importance of the tiniest details. “When Ms. McNeely is directing, I realize things I never noticed but make the play 10 times better,” Ellie said, describing how in a discussion about hairstyles for the girls in The Hundred Dresses, someone suggested a French braid. “Ms. McNeely said the father wouldn’t know how to make one. And I thought you really have to pay attention to so many things.”

In her first several musicals, Ellie sang and danced without having had any extra training. Now she’s taking singing lessons and is part of Inspiration Stage’s Con­servatory for Inspired Theatre Youth (CITY), which is a year-long professional musical theater training program for youths with classes in such things as music, voice, acting, ballet, tap and jazz. “Singing, dancing and acting is a triple threat so we work on all three at CITY,” Ellie said. Other training at Inspiration Stage includes master classes, sometimes with people who have performed on Broadway.

Ellie is also in Baines’ choir and recently competed in UIL Junior Varsity competition. They received the best score possible from all judges in sight reading and performance of three songs.

When a musical at Inspiration Stage is in production, the time commitment is demanding. During rehearsals, Ellie might be there 12 hours a week and then daily in the week before opening night. To her, it’s worth it because it’s fun. She generally has an upbeat attitude but admits she can get a little cranky. Mom Kristen says she has strong emotions.

“A lot of it comes naturally because I’m not like a shy person at all and so that out-there personality definitely helps develop character. Also it helps if the character has a personality like yours – it intensifies the emotions of it,” Ellie said.

The emotional aspect of theater doesn’t only take place on stage. What she’s experiencing since she began acting is teamwork and acceptance, all good lessons for a lifetime. Ellie and her friends may all want the lead roles in each production. “That’s exactly what is so hard because we’re like family, so we all support each other even when we’re competing for the same roles,” she said.

Her self-talk shows her growing confidence. “The main thing is you have to keep trying. Let’s say you try out for the school musical and you don’t get a speaking role. You shouldn’t say to yourself, ‘I’m no good, I’ll never do this again.’ It’s not the end of the world – you have to keep going until you make it,” Ellie said.

This is exactly what she’s doing: developing her innate talents to become a
triple threat. But it’s too early in her life for Ellie to decide if she will pursue acting as a profession.

“I think it would be really cool to do it as a career but I just don’t know now. But I’m sure it will be some part of my life.” l