Eastern Michigan University’s Theatre For the Young Tour has arrived on campus with its latest show, “The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus.”
Appropriate for children ages five and up, it followed an 8-year-old girl named Sheila. Living and playing in the desert in New Mexico, Sheila and her friends found themselves involved in animals plotting a war with humans.
“The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus” will be performed at the Sponberg Theater, located in Judy-Sturgis Hill, on April 11 at 7 p.m. and April 12 at noon and 7 p.m. Tickets cost six dollars and can be purchased online through the Legacy Box Office at EMU or in-person at the Sponberg Theater ticket booth.
These performances mark the end of this tour, which prioritized schools in rural areas. The play’s director, Olivia Allen said, “my research is focused on theatre for rural audiences, so we really tried to go mostly to rural schools for this tour, and so I wanted to pick a play that I felt like represented things that kids in rural areas would go through.”
Allen is a final semester Masters of Fine Arts candidate attending EMU. As a matter of fact, this tour is her final project for her MFA. Along with the rural setting, Allen chose “The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus” for its environmentalist message and themes around the relationship humans have to nature.
In the play, the animals have conflict with humans due to their land being taken and disrespected. Sheila confronts this with cleverness and an emphasis on cooperation. The story was a parable on both respecting nature and the importance of working with instead of against others to resolve conflict.
Along with actors in bright, colorful masks, animal puppets were made out of mainly cardboard and paint. According to Allen, these puppets have enamoured many children across 11 tour stops. With characters breaking the fourth wall and actors coming in through the audience, there’s a level of interactivity children have engaged with.
“The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus” also explored the importance of recycling and imagination as the friends turned junk into their world, making use of an assortment of props such as pans, trash cans, and a traffic cone, giving the show an eclectic, eye-catching aesthetic. This created layers of imagination as well as characters played within a play.
“One of the coolest things about doing theater for young audiences is that children audiences are so much more willing to imagine and dream with you than often adult audiences are,” said Allen.
Alex Beverly starred as Sheila in their final EMU Theatre performance. They fully embodied the whimsical and eccentric energy of the character, making the role look like a blast to play. The rest of the cast matched her energy, inviting the audience into a lush desert where anything could happen.
With how lively the cast was, it may be surprising that the play was initially written as a one-person show. Originally done in one long monologue, Allen reworked the script in December 2024 for multiple parts, then casted the following January.
“The Girl Who Swallowed a Cactus” was written by Eric Coble. In 2022, it won the American Alliance for Theatre & Education's Distinguished Play Award. The show runs for around 50 minutes.
EMU’s Theatre For the Young Tour is a program that runs each semester. By touring in schools, libraries, and community centers, EMU students bring the art of theatre to children throughout the southeast Michigan community. It is housed in EMU’s Applied Drama and Theatre for the Young program. More can be learned through the tour’s official website.
Frank Remski is a review columnist for The Eastern Echo. He is majoring in media studies and journalism and minoring in public relations. He has worked for The Echo since summer of 2023 and has written both news stories and opinion pieces. He was named Columnist of the Year by The Echo for his writing in the 2024-2025 school year.
