It looks like another young country mouse is going off into the wide world to find out what life is like for all those city mice.

Eighteen-year-old Max Cole Takanikos may be familiar to some community members as the boy (among many) who grew up in Langley with one foot always onstage.

That’s at least 13 years of training, a formidable amount of practice for an aspiring actor. Now Cole Takanikos is headed to the big city to see what lies ahead on the larger stage, and has already moved to the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.

But this actor and fine artist would like to say a proper and fond farewell to the community that helped to nurture his creative life.

A “Visual Art and Performance Weekend with Max Cole Takanikos” will take place at the Whidbey Children’s Theater in Langley. Feb. 26-28.

From 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 26, Cole Takanikos will present his visual art in the lobby of the theater with an opening reception. The show will remain up through the weekend. On Saturday, Feb. 27, Cole Takanikos will perform selections from theater, poetry and a peppering of songs on the theater’s Martha Murphy Mainstage at 7:30 p.m. Performer David Ossman will join him for the poetry reading.

The show is a fundraiser for the artist, who said the informal evening is one he hopes the community will enjoy watching as much as he enjoys entertaining those who have shown him so much love and support through the years. They are the ones who encouraged him to act and paint, he said.

“I come from modest beginnings,” Cole Takanikos said. “I felt like I could tap into that resource of all these kind people who I think might like to help me out. And I want to give them all a final fond farewell.”

There is a healthy number of directors and fellow actors who have worked with the young thespian over the years.

Katie Woodzick directed him in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” the Tom Stoppard play that was produced at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in 2009. Cole Takanikos played Rosencrantz at age 17, and if you are familiar with the demanding text of any of Stoppard’s plays, you know that’s no piece of cake.

“What I love most about watching Max onstage is his complete commitment to each moment,” Woodzick said. “He is an absolute joy to direct, and I cannot wait to see what happens next in his acting career.”

When Cole Takanikos played the unstoppable “Toad” in the Whidbey Children’s Theater production of “The Wind in the Willows,” one very young audience member shouted at the top of his little lungs when Toad exited the stage, “Where’s Toady? I want the toad back!”

That seems to be the general consensus about Cole Takanikos’s likability onstage. He has presence. Presence is something that can’t be learned. Either you have it or you don’t, and if the community’s reception of this young actor is any indication, Cole Takanikos has presence in spades.

Whidbey Children’s Theater founder Martha Murphy has known Cole Takanikos since he first stepped on the stage as a young boy. She’s directed him in several plays over the years.

“One of Max’s earliest roles was as Ed Sullivan in a ‘time-travel,’ Murphy said.

“He did research and even developed some of the mannerisms of this early television icon.”

Such research was not unusual for the young actor who is known among the theater crowd to take his acting very seriously. In a recent production of “Treasure Island,” in which he played Long John Silver, Murphy said Cole Takanikos tied up his leg and created a peg leg for himself with some help from his dad, which he proceeded to wear diligently in every performance.

Such commitment to a role is no surprise to Murphy.

“He is a committed and dedicated actor who takes the time to develop his character and also brings great energy to the stage,” she added.

Cole Takanikos has been painting a long time, too, since about age 3 or even before that maybe, he said.

“My style has broadened from my ‘skull’ period,” he said smiling.

He works with acrylics and admires the classical painters. He is currently interested in realism. During the art show, patrons will be able to find pieces that run the gamut of sizes and prices.

With this farewell show, Cole Takanikos will lay himself out in paintings and onstage one more time before taking on the challenges of the city, something this determined teen has already begun.

Cole Takanikos landed his first part onstage in Seattle. He’ll be playing Fedotic in a Ghost Light Theatricals production of “The Three Sisters” by Anton Chekhov.

Break a leg, country mouse.

Cole Takanikos shows paintings Feb. 26 – 28, and is onstage at the Whidbey Children’s Theater in Langley, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27.

Tickets for the performance are $15 for adults, $10 for students at the door.

Call Joni Takanikos at 360-969-1312 for more info.