Front Porch Musical Theatre Puts On ‘Fiddler On The Roof Jr.’
As high school senior Micah Ziemke takes the stage in this weekend’s final showings of “Fiddler on the Roof Jr.” for Front Porch Musical Theatre in Elk River, he knows he’s among friends that have become family.
“I’ve been in other sports. I’ve done soccer, I’ve done baseball, I’ve done football. It’s all great and good stuff there and connections you make there,” said Ziemke, who plays Tevye. “But the friends and connections you make here, the family that it is. That’s a word that’s used a lot for a lot of communities, but I feel like here everybody just cares about each other so much and just genuinely is here for each other and you make some lifelong friends.”
Tevye tries to navigate his family through what he sees as traditions in their Jewish community in Russia in 1905. That’s to say it doesn’t always go the way he thinks it should.
“He’s such a real person and in a lot of ways that makes him the most complicated character I’ve ever played,” said Ziemke. “It’s really easy to play a villain persona. ‘I’m a villain! I’m bad!’ To portray a real dude, a real guy, who’s displaying all these real emotions. It’s something so deep and so cool and I’ve really enjoyed just getting my teeth into and just digging into.”
Micah Ziemke stars as Tevye in Front Porch Musical Theatre’s production of “Fiddler on the Roof, Jr.” in Elk River.
But Ziemke and his cast mates say that’s what Front Porch strives to create and foster–an inclusive, welcoming experience for students of musical theater.
“We try in every show that we do to have all of our student actors on stage as much as it possibly makes sense,” said co-founder and co-creative director Linda Lindeen. “We are very family-centered. All of our shows are family-appropriate. Every show we do, for all ages. As young as they come and as old as they come.”
The cast of “Fiddler” is made up of students as young as 5 and as old as 18.
“Everybody’s very welcoming and everybody’s always so accepting, and you’re welcomed like you’re a part of the family,” said Emma Dorn, who plays Tevye’s oldest daughter, Tzeitel.
Dorn knows that a lot of people come to see the show with a lot of their own memories of the well-known story.
“I’m excited for the excitement, I guess. It’s a very–not overwhelming–but it’s an exciting experience and it’s a lot of fun,” she said. “Sometimes there are certain circumstances that can not be solved by things that have always been followed. Tradition is mainly the message in ‘Fiddler.’ Sometimes love wins.”
There are performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Elk River High School.
The next production for Front Porch Musical Theatre will be “Disney’s Lion King Jr.” in May.
