At the beginning of the summer, I auditioned for the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte’s entire season. I was thrilled when after the full-audition and callback process, I received an email from the team that I was accepted into the cast of Matilda. I had seen the production on tour and was completely amazed! I remember leaning over to my mom during the show and telling her that this was a show that I could do! I was so happy when I started hearing from my friends that they had gotten into the show with me. I was a little scared when I realized I was going to have to miss the first week of rehearsals because I would be in Philadelphia for Broadway Dreams but my stage manager approved of my absences and I found out that one of the other ensemble members was going to be doing the exact same thing.
The rehearsal process started off with learning the harmonies. We didn’t add the adults in to the process until another week into rehearsals. The cast consisted of three different ensembles, the children’s ensemble, the teen ensemble, and the adult ensemble. The teen ensemble was needed to torment the young children and execute the harder dance steps in the big musical numbers. Learning the choreography was fun yet challenging. I was often filling in for missing children during rehearsals and then helping them clean and catch up later. This was also one of the first productions that I drove myself to all of the rehearsals, with my new license and my after nines!
The costumes for the show were very similar to the ones were wore for School Of Rock. We were in uniforms for most of the show and the teen girls all sported SPACE BUNS! I got to work with some of the same adults that were in Mary Poppins with me and I continued to learn from their professionalism and talents. This year I am taking AP music theory and two of the adults from the cast went to college and completed the course, so they were a giant help during rehearsals when I was trying to complete my homework.
The show had many interesting elements to it, including extremely tall bars that I got to climb and swings that hung from the top of the theatre that I got to swing on! My favorite moment of the show by far was dancing to Revolting Children. The song is just so fun to screlt (belt and scream) and the choreography was so athletic and intricate that it made me feel accomplished to execute. Working with the kids was always interesting but also gave me many opportunities to help others. Whether it be drilling a specific harmony or helping out with a dance step, I was always open and willing to help! I was so attached to the show and so happy to have been apart of it. After the last show the children were hysterical and didn’t know what to do with themselves, and it really made me realize how big a show this caliber can make an impact on a young kid’s life and that friendships made through theatre are the strongest bonds you can make!