Outside the box: 'Boxcar Children' takes stage at railroad depot

Mar. 14—Four orphaned children fearful they will be separated run off to live in a boxcar — to find out what happens next in the classic children's tale of "The Boxcar Children," you can head down to an appropriate venue: the Meadville Railroad Depot.

The depot that once saw boxcar after boxcar travel past will host showings of the Meadville Community Theatre production this weekend and next in its multipurpose room, where wooden beams dating to the building's opening in 1881 stretch below the high ceiling and a floor warped by decades of use shines from recent restoration.

"It just kind of dovetailed together — this being a place that offered a lot of opportunities and the ability to combine what we've done and what they're doing," said Ed Cronin of the play taking place at the depot. Cronin is treasurer of the French Creek Valley Railroad Historical Society, the nonprofit that conducted the elaborate renovations needed to create the museum and community center.

Cronin has been opening and closing the depot each evening during two weeks of final rehearsals for the production, which features a dozen area youths.

"It's come a long way," Cronin said of the production. "And it's not an easy show to put on — these guys are real troupers, doing what they need to do to get the show done."

Part of the challenge involves adapting the depot to the needs of a theatrical production, according to Geoff Hall and Alicia Greathouse, the directors of the play.

"I've been doing this more than 20 years, and so has she," Hall said. "This is the first time we've done a show in collaboration with a depot."

Staging their last production — "Evil Dead The Musical" — at Voodoo Brewery's The Compound provided some useful experience, but "The Boxcar Children" is a very different sort of story.

It's also a story familiar to many, dating back to the 1924 publication of the namesake novel by Gertrude Chandler Warner. The series continues today, with other writers adding more than 120 volumes to the 19 that Warner wrote. The play is adapted from Warner's original novel by Barbara Field.

"I remember them being read to me, my nieces and nephews read them," Greathouse said of the Boxcar Children books, "and my grandmother, who is 91, remembers reading them as a child. The great thing we've been finding out with the excitement about the show is that it is generational."

Without spoiling the story for those who may not have encountered it, the Alden children — Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny, from oldest to youngest — lose their parents but are determined not to lose their family when they hear officials talk of separating the young Benny from the older siblings. They head to a boxcar in the woods, determined to fend for themselves rather than be separated.

Like the enthusiasm from those familiar with the book series, the prospect of taking a production on the move away from MCT's home stage in the Odd Fellows Hall at Allegheny College has things going full-steam ahead.

The practice has been a feature of several MCT productions in recent years. In addition to "Evil Dead The Musical," the theater performed "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Goodell Gardens & Homestead in Edinboro last summer and in 2022 staged "Inherit the Wind" in an actual courtroom at the Crawford County Courthouse.

Those productions, however, didn't feature casts consisting of a dozen children.

"There's always excitement when you're taking that many kids off site," Hall said. "It's a learning curve for everybody because we've had to figure out lights in a place that doesn't traditionally have lights, sound effects in a place that doesn't have a system for it, so it's been a little bit of a challenge, but the kids are really stepping up."

The combination of the unique location and the response from the cast has Hall excited for opening night on Friday.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the audience reaction to this, just because this is the rare kind of show where young actors get to show emotion and heartache and sadness and all of that," he said. "I'm really interested to see how the audience responds to that."

The payoff for the time invested in a youth production extends beyond the audience's that fill the theater seats, according to Greathouse.

"Seeing the youth involved in our productions grow, whether that be in their stagecraft or in their friendships with the other kids — it's such a rewarding thing to do for everybody involved."

You can go

Meadville Community Theatre's production of "The Boxcar Children," adapted for the stage by Barbara Field from the classic children's novel by Gertrude Chandler Warner, will take place at Meadville Railroad Depot this weekend and next. Friday and Saturday shows start at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday shows are at 2 p.m. A sensory friendly production designed for audience members on the autism spectrum will be staged this Sunday. Tickets are $13 for adults and $11 for students and seniors and can be purchased via mct1967.square.site or by calling (814) 333-1773.

Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at mcrowley@meadvilletribune.com.