Written by Kim Kokernot
Most little girls like to play dress-up. Silly hats, frilly dresses and oversized high heels are classic favorites, but not all girls are willing to cut off 8 inches of hair to achieve a new look.
Seven-year-old Emma Myhan did just that for her role as Tiny Tim in the Homecoming musical, “Scrooge,” in which she dons short hair, brown trousers and a crutch to play the sick son of Bob Cratchit.
Though Emma originally hesitated about the possibility of cutting her blonde hair during the audition process, she embraced the idea after being named a title character in the musical.
“She was incredibly honored and didn’t care that she had to lose her hair,” Emma’s mother, Rachel Myhan, said.
Cutting her hair was not the only change that she had to make: Emma had to learn to walk and act like a boy. She interviewed her friends about how to act and kept notes in a journal.
“She is a very girly girl,” children’s director Daisha Sheets said. “She would go home, and she would watch boys and mimic how they moved differently than her very girly little walk. She had the additional challenge of learning to walk on a crutch, along with first-time theater things. And she has done great with all of that.”
Aside from memorizing lines and practicing her solo, “Beautiful Day,” a new challenge developed Monday: an unexpected cold.
“In some ways it’s OK because she’s supposed to be sickly as Tiny Tim, but it’s really not OK if she can’t sing her solo,” Rachel said. “We just want her to be healthy so she can do her best. She’s been on top of her game from the very beginning and you don’t want to drop the ball at the end of the game.”
The cold has stirred her usually calm nerves as she tries to keep from coughing, but director Robin Miller said only her confidence and personality show through each performance.
“Emma’s biggest strength is her charm,” Miller said. “She’s very charming and very engaging on stage.”
Both Sheets and Rachel said that Emma’s confident personality has helped her to be successful in the play, and though there have been challenges in the production, Miller said that Emma has “stepped up to the plate beautifully.”
“She’s quite dramatic with her words anyways, so it wasn’t really that hard to get her to put emotion into them,” Rachel said.
A natural performer, Emma began her singing career on her family’s brick hearth at 18 months old, and she first asked her parents if she could try out for a play at age 4. When her grandparents, Jerry and Dianne Myhan, found out that children were needed for the “Scrooge” cast, Emma was given the chance to achieve a dream.
“When you spend that kind of time listening to your child sing day in and day out, and all of that time comes to fruition in something that they love to do, it’s incredible,” Rachel said. “You feel so joyous for them that they are able to do something that they love.”
Realizing that the final curtain will soon fall, Emma said she is sad that the play will end at the end of the week. But she hopes that “Scrooge” is only the first of many plays in her future.
“Before I started acting, I wanted to be an art teacher,” Emma said. “But now I want to be an actress.”
