No sweat putting on this performance

CORONA DEL MAR ? After the last few weeks of rehearsing, Eastbluff Elementary School’s summer musical should feel like a breeze on opening night.

A really cool breeze.

This spring, the air-conditioning system at Eastbluff gave out, and while the district worked on getting it fixed, the cast and crew of “A Year with Frog and Toad” bravely went through rehearsals for their annual production. With electric fans whirring and water bottles on hand, the actors toughed out the summer heat wave in a sweltering multipurpose room.

“We’re all in the same heat, so it’s not that bad,” said Megan Lambert, 13, a Corona del Mar Middle School student who plays two roles in the play.

Even with California reaching record temperatures, the “Frog and Toad” cast hasn’t missed a rehearsal all summer. Still, the theater scene at Eastbluff this summer has been unusual, to say the least.

To compensate for the lack of circulated air, parents and students set half a dozen electric fans around the multipurpose room. Principal Charlene Metoyer ordered the rehearsal time moved to a cooler part of the afternoon. Toward the end of July, the cast began performing in near-darkness, since the lights provided an additional source of heat.

And as of Thursday, the actors had only practiced in their regular clothes.

“If you do a really sweaty dress rehearsal, you have to launder all the costumes,” explained parent Annie Lindt, the director and producer of the play.

This weekend, the cast expects to practice in dress for the first time after the air conditioning is fixed. The play, which benefits the Eastbluff PTA, opens at 7 p.m. Monday night and continues for two more cool evenings.

“A Year with Frog and Toad,” based on Arnold Lobel’s children’s books, covers a year in the life of its title characters. The production features a cast of 40 students all dressed as animals, with tutus for bird feathers, backpacks for snail shells and camouflage clothes for turtles. James Conger and Ruvin Gersten, who play the leads, make do with plaid pants, suspenders and bowties.

Lindt and other parents found the costumes at the Salvation Army and other secondhand outlets. Otherwise, the musical is a community production. Debra Pagliassotti, an Eastbluff parent and former Disneyland choreographer, directs the dance numbers, while the students themselves built most of the sets.

Most of the cast members attend Eastbluff, but a few are middle-school students who graduated a year or two back. Ruvin, 13, who attends Corona del Mar, said working with younger actors was beneficial to both sides.

“They show us how to act like a kid again, and we show them how to act,” he said.