By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

TURNER – Kids love Jim Raymond for his caring, his skill as a music teacher – and for giving in once they’d bugged him enough.

He credits students from his sixth-grade class at Auburn’s Webster Intermediate School for keeping up the pressure and persuading him to put together a musical production.

“He kept saying it was too expensive,” said Caroline Dunn, one of Raymond’s students. Too much work, too little time, too few students, he told them. But these kids, who are theater buffs and singers, didn’t give up.

“They just have a passion for musical theater,” he said. He shares that. So, he relented and created the Central Maine Children’s Theater Project.

The fledgling company includes at least 30 kids in grades three through eight from Auburn, Turner, Greene and Leeds – a much bigger cast than he could have assembled from one school.

Their first production, “Honk! Jr.,” takes place Saturday at Leavitt Area High School.

“Honk!” is an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling.” The Broadway-caliber musical debuted in London in 1999, winning the Olivier Award – the British equivalent of a Tony award – for best new musical in 2000.

Raymond’s group is doing a further adaptation – “Honk! Jr.” It’s been made easier for kids to do, Raymond said. Vocal ranges have been adapted for pre-teen vocal cords and some of the choreography is a bit less demanding.

“Still, it’s pretty ambitious,” he said. “There’s a lot of singing, and a lot of dancing. We’re expecting a lot from these kids.”

Parents are helping to design costumes and stage scenery, and 16 portable microphones will be used to make sure the young actors can be heard. Most productions use fewer than a dozen, Raymond said.

He wishes there was more time for practices and planning, and that there were more shows. The production has moved quickly. Auditions and the first rehearsal were on April 30.

It’s a narrow window, Raymond said. There will be only one show because five of his cast members leave for family vacations on Sunday.

Every kid who auditioned got a part, Raymond said.

“I really had no idea what I’d get once I started,” he said. He was afraid he’d wind up with a cast of five or six kids and an audience of 15. He’s more confident now. There are no advance ticket sales, but he expects a sellout.

“We know of entire classes, classmates of these kids, planning on coming,” he said. “I think we’re going sell this place out, which is cool.”