Josiah Return Play Analysis

Josiah Returns Review
By Zachary Webster
07/22/13
Edith Carnley

Saturday July 13 at around 2:30, I was very pleased at this group of young performers who put on the play Josiah Returns inside of Charles Winter Wood Theatre. The young children were all a part of the five week Irene C. Edmonds Youth Camp for kids interested in theatre. All of the children were in between elementary and high school.
The story begins with five children attempting to appease their grandmother to sign their report card due to their bad grades. Before grandmother will sign it, she tells them the story of Josiah to teach them a lesson. Josiah 's story is about him leaving home after his mother died and his father gives him his inheritance to do whatever he feels he needs to do in order to find himself. He returns home and his father is overjoyed, but Josiah 's brother and sister have disowned him as their brother. Josiah now has to prove to his siblings that he is still one of them and does whatever his brother wants in order to bring his family back together.
The playwright wrote this play for people of all races,
religions, and backgrounds. The story is universal and can be applied to any one person 's life. The story is about redemption and finding a way to make things work even when life has presented many obstacles to you. Although the story may seem to be about a grandmother trying to torture her kids with a boring story from the Bible, the story actually is teaching the audience about how not to give up and instead, to keep trying to succeed instead of accepting failure.
The environment of the theatre is very welcoming, even without the presence of any ushers. As you walk inside the theatre, all you can see is happy families and students, smiling and excited to see the play. The music playing is very soothing and inviting as you wait for everyone to be seated and for the play to start.
The play itself was very enjoyable to me. I was entertained throughout the play with the adorable songs and dances. It was admirable to see how these young kids came together for five weeks to put on a play and most of the kids did not have any trouble remember all of their lines, songs, and dances. Many of the children had important roles with lengthy lines and they did not stutter or stumble over them and I found that impressive. I was also very impressed at the professionalism of the entire play. There was no giggling or horse playing throughout the entire production and you could tell that the children took the play very serious.
What I did not find impressive were some of the scenes in the play.
The talent show portion of the show was somewhat boring. I understand that these are only children and they can only do so much, but I still feel as though the producers could have done something to sort of spice things up a little. During the talent show, the audience seemed very bored as they watched some of the children’s talents. People left to use the restroom and take a stretch break during this time and they just did not seem very interested in this portion of the show. Some of the performances were very adorable such as the magic show done by the two little girls, and the songs they sang. Again, I understand that these are young children who can only do so much but I just felt as though the producer and director could have come up with something to keep the audience interested during this
time.
What really kept the audience smiling was the young girl who played the grandmother in the play. Although I cannot recall her name, she had the audience laughing and smiling in every scene she was included in. She gave the show that extra spark it needed and she left everyone in the crowd wanting her to come back on stage and say or do something funny again. She is only eight years old right now but I feel as though she will definitely have a big future ahead of her.
All in all, the play Josiah Returns put on by these young people of the Irene C. Edmonds Youth Camp was a big success. The play itself taught the audience how not to give up when the circumstances seem insurmountable and to persevere and strive to complete your goal. But the children also taught the audience a very big lesson: how to work together to complete a common goal no matter how hard. These kids came together for five weeks and put together an amazing show even though it was very tough. They learned many lines, dances, and songs through the tireless days of practicing and came out and amazed in entire audience with their performance and I believe that was the biggest message of all.

Works Cited Webb, James. Josiah Returns. Tallahassee: np. July 13, 2013. Performance.