PROVIDENCE -- Just a handful of people knew before the Providence Newspaper Guild Follies who this year's Mystery Guest was going to be. One of them was an 11-year-old Tiverton boy.

Evan Kinnane practically stole the show from his co-star, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, at Friday night's show when he portrayed Roberts' baby-faced Chief of Staff Paul Tencher, who's 26.

Kinnane is not related to Roberts, who has two daughters. The boy is homeschooled in Tiverton and acts at Warren's Second Story Theatre, where he has appeared in such plays as David Copperfield, according to the lieutenant governor's real chief of staff, Tencher.

The Roberts camp knew of the young actor through Roberts' husband, Tom, who also acts at the theater.

Tencher and Tom Roberts wrote the script after the lieutenant governor was invited to be the Mystery Guest about two and a half weeks before the annual musical spoof. They practiced with Kinnane in two sessions taking up about four hours at the Second Story Theater, Tencher said.

Their practice paid off, as Kinnane's counsel on Roberts' fake health care speech and her daughter's hospital visit had the crowd in stitches.

"That was the biggest crowd he’s ever done," Tencher said of the boy, who performed before a packed house at the Venus de Milo in Swansea, Mass. "He was excited."

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples