West Sider Lori Betz is on the road this year. She left her job with Cincinnati Public Schools to tutor the six moppets that inhabit the orphanage in “Annie.” Betz is delighted to be making a week-long stop in her hometown, with performances of the non-Equity tour starting Tuesday at the Aronoff. “Annie” is a season special of BroadwayAcrossAmerica-Cincinnati.
“I love ‘em,” Betz laughs. Grades 4 to 7, the girls have individual curriculums and while classroom work is 15 hours a week “we try to get in 20.”
The biggest challenge is teaching in the back of the bus. Yup, this “Annie” is a true bus-and-truck with stints of one- and two-night stands between longer engagements. The girls work on their individual lessons simultaneously, often as the miles role by.
“I’m excited to have the United States as my classroom,” Betz says. The tour will hit 37 states before it wraps early next summer. Betz researches the upcoming stops, and so do the parents who tour with them.
In Cincinnati, Betz will take them the the Cincinnati Museum Center and she’d like to get to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center if a time window opens up.
Betz has only seen the show three times since it began, getting her chance to explore while the kids are onstage. Betz is having a ball and she’ll likely sign on for another tour when this one ends. “I’ve had the best time!”
Find more information at CinStages.com. If you see the show, look for NKU grad Justin Glaser as the laundry man.
Jackie Demaline
