Matilda The Musical has been almost a year in the making. When we first had the idea of doing a modern musical that would bring literacy, children’s theatre, high school musicians and performers, and the community together, even we thought we might be crazy. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. And it turns out that we are quite amazing at convincing each other that a challenging path just might be worth traveling.
So, we decided in February to make a plan, and we're not sure that either of us has had a “Matilda free” week since. The students joined in on the journey almost immediately upon coming back to school, and we had high expectations for them. There may have been a few stumbles along the way, but they have risen to the task like we knew they would in order to tackle difficult music, complex choreography, and set changes built into the show, as well as to please very, very detail-oriented directors.
Our goal with Matilda was to bring people together. This started by partnering with Memorial Opera House’s LimeLights Youth Theatre program to audition and cast several elementary and middle school students in the show. We were inspired by the work they do with young people to help foster a love of the arts in our community, and hoped to instill those same values in our high school students. We also wanted to give the entire cast the experience of a collaborative working environment similar to what they would encounter when they do theatre outside of school.
Once rehearsals were underway, we worked with the elementary school media center specialists to offer copies of Roald Dahl’s book, Matilda, to students to read prior to coming to see the show. This year, for the first time in several years, we hosted over 2,000 elementary students to visit the high school this week to see a preview of the show. Not only do we hope that they enjoyed what they saw, but we hope it inspires them to continue exploring other live performances in our community.
We could not have done this show without a huge team of collaborators. We want to thank our production team for their tireless efforts in their areas of expertise, as well as the parents of our awesome students for providing us with so much support (from the moment we made the announcement of our fall musical.) Our parent organization, the VHS Theatre Boosters, Inc., sponsored the prize basket raffles, tech week meals for over 100 people, and organized advertising, ticket, and t-shirt sales; all of which allowed us to keep our focus on the students and the show.
Lastly, thank you, our audience members, for supporting the arts in our community and our school. We are beyond excited for our students to share what they’ve worked so hard on for several months, and hope your imagination is ready to look at the world through the eyes of a child.
-Colleen Peluso and Molly Vass
