All Their World’s a Stage

Your kids get playtime.

Their kids get Play Time.

"If they didn't love what they're doing, we would never do it," says Rick Smith of Henderson, whose daughters -- 12-year-old Ellie and 10-year-old Amy -- are tackling two musicals in two festivals with three roles over four months.

"People might say, 'How can you do it and why would you do it?' But their love for musical theater and dance and singing is intense and joyous, so we're doing everything to support them. If we had sons who could throw a spiral 30 yards, we'd do the same."

Go-go days and nights are the norm for these stage-crazed sisters from St. Viator Catholic School: Ellie -- dubbed "the Star-Spangled girl" for power-crooning the national anthem and "God Bless America" at ballgames from Cashman Field to Dodger Stadium -- shares the lead role of Mary Lennox with another actress in the musical "The Secret Garden" July 4-Aug. 28 at the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City. (Read more about that festival in Friday's Neon.)

Following that run, she springboards into the title role in "Annie," taking over the-sun'll-come-out-tomorrow part in a production playing now through mid-October at the Tuacahn Broadway in the Desert Series in St. George, teaming with Amy, who's performing the entire "Annie" run as the orphan Kate.

Meals, sleep and schoolwork fill time not spent rehearsing, performing and commuting.

When they'll shoehorn in a few hours to help President Obama push health care reform through Congress still is undecided.

"Here was our (month of) May," says their ex-model mom, Geri, a marriage/family therapist when not ferrying her talented twosome up and down I-15, piling 5,000 miles onto the odometer. "They'd have to be (in school) at 7:45 in the morning. I'd take them out early, drive to (Utah), rehearse until 9:30 p.m. You're on the road at 10 o'clock, we get home at 11:45. Then we'd start all over again. They're rehearsing sometimes 12 hours a day."

Balancing double duties, Ellie began "Annie" rehearsals May 5 in St. George, then bounced over to Cedar City May 15 to start "Garden" rehearsals. During the "Garden" run, she'll boomerang back for weekly "Annie" rehearsals.

"There was a lot of homework going on in the car with the little light on, like 'Come on guys, you have to do your science.' " Geri Smith says. "It worked out. They both did very well in their studies."

True, Ellie is in the national junior honor society. Amy? Her academic average suffered a slide. From 100 to 99.

How will these children ever compete in the world with such fluctuating grades?

"Sometimes I had rehearsals until 2 in the morning," Amy says. "I love dancing, it's my favorite thing to do. I just love being onstage."

Ellie's equally emphatic: "It just comes naturally to us, we just love it. We do it all the time and we can't stop."

Apparently. Her mom -- noting Ellie "was singing at a year old and Amy was dancing in diapers" -- says she was contacted by producers of Broadway's "Billy Elliot," interested in Ellie for a role. "We turned them down because we didn't want to uproot the family," she says. Not to disrespect Mom, but Ellie interrupts: "I think we should have."

But ongoing acting gigs -- she also appeared in Tuacahn's "Sound of Music" and "Les Miserables" -- and an emerging recording career should suffice for now, as well as her niche as an anthem-belter. Last season she reached the postseason at the Dodgers-Phillies playoffs. "The game I sang at was the only one (the Dodgers) won," she says. (You listening, Joe Torre?)

Where, amid all this structured Play Time, is carefree playtime? "They don't have as much of that," Geri Smith says. "But we go to Disneyland every other month for a weekend, and try to fit in balance."

Any reservations about the whirlwind world their daughters are furiously spinning through? "Only that in the entertainment industry, there's some wacky stuff," Rick Smith says. "We just want our girls to be happy and healthy and live clean, active lives."

Once "Annie" and "The Secret Garden" are scratched off the to-do list, Congress and the president are waiting patiently by the phone.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.