Homeschool group will stage The Lion May 2 at church

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Apr 27, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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He was scared, too scared to stand in front of an audition panel and recite his lines.

Fear filled his eyes, his voice faded into a tiny whimper.

Tonja Rainey had her doubts. If he was this afraid in the beginning, how would he pull off a performance? So, she turned to his mom.

“I asked her if he really wanted to do this, and she told me he did,” Rainey said. “She told me that he’d memorized all of his lines.”

She pauses to take a breath – a deep one. This story is emotional for her, because it was through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that she saw a transformation in this scared little boy.

That’s the play for which he was auditioning, the play the Berean Homeschool Co-op of Baton Rouge will perform Friday, May 2, at First Christian Church on Old Hammond Highway.

No, this isn’t a professional production. It really isn’t a school production, either.

It’s a show that came together through a bunch of moms and kids who meet once a week for what could be called extracurricular classes or activities. Rainey is one of those moms, and she was interested in drama.

She’d taken only a couple of drama classes in college, but she loved it. And she wanted her children to love it, too. So she took charge of the drama class, teaching students what she knew of what goes into producing a play, from choosing actors to painting props.

“That’s how it is with all of the classes in the co-op,” Sharon Winter said. “Mothers teach the classes once a week, and the rest of the week is spent in homeschooling.”

Winter’s daughter is in the play, her first. In fact, the production is a first for most of the cast members.

Rainey decided one of the best ways of teaching students about drama is to stage an entire play. She wanted a story in which both girls and boys would be interested. Joseph Robinette’s play adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe fit the bill.

“I found it online,” Rainey said. “It was published by the Dramatic Publishing Co., and we paid the royalties.”