Matilda Heads to ITF

Champaign Central Drama’s production of Matilda: The Musical was one of five musicals from the nation (and a couple other countries) selected to perform on the International Thespian Festival’s main stage this June in Bloomington, Indiana.

Ms. Ladonna Wilson, the head of the Drama Department, said, “We were chosen as one of the five musicals to perform at the ITF. Over 130 acts applied to do this by sending in videos and there’s a rigorous performance and technical evaluation that they do to pick the top scores.”

This is a huge accomplishment for the students at Central as securing a performance at the ITF is similar to a sports team making it to their state competition. Ellis Mansfield, who played Matilda, spoke to the achievement: “It was such an exciting moment for all of us involved! We were all super giddy when we found out but we knew we had to keep it somewhat under wraps. The people I did tell, though, were incredibly happy for me, even though most didn’t know what going to ITF means for us.

“I know I’m going to be insanely nervous so it’s a bit daunting, but my excitement beats any fears that I have. When we attended the Illinois Theatre Festival in January it was interesting to see how some of the kids performing were treated like celebrities, so it’s fun to think about that being us!”

Head of Tech, Angela Nguyen, said, “I thought that all parts of the production- from the cast, to the crew, to the pit, to the parents- all helped put so much effort into the show, so I wasn’t surprised that Matilda did so well… I am so excited to be able to stage manage a show at nationals!”

The Student Assistant to the Director, Kate Roth, said, “I was incredibly proud of the show, and I knew we had created something truly great, but you really can’t be sure with these things. There are so many fantastic high school theater programs throughout the country- I knew the competition would be stiff.”

Ms. Wilson, also speaking about the competitiveness for the ITF, said, “When we didn’t hear for the first week, I just assumed we didn’t make it. I finally got an email to my personal email that said, ‘Hey, we haven’t heard back from you. I just wanted to make sure you got this email to know that you were accepted.’ I knew we were going to be close regardless: this show was fabulous… When I found out, I sent it out on Remind, because we still have a Matilda Remind that I left open, and I could hear little pockets of people around the building, because some people didn’t see it because they don’t get good reception and they were hearing it from other students in the hallway, so it was kind of a ripple effect through the high school.”

As for the specifics of the show, Ms. Wilson said, “… We’re doing it completely the way that we did it here: we’re gonna do the flying, the swings, etc.. We only had one actor that couldn’t perform at all, so that’s pretty good… We will get all the specs for the theater, so we will get to know how it’s different from ours and what might we have to modify… and we have to get our materials in and be able to practice for safety.”

In terms of the schedule the crew will have to deal with for the performance, Ms. Wilson said, “We’ll get a day to about 8 hours: to put everything in, practice it, and do all of that kind of spacing and perform two times the following day. It’s a super tight schedule… We’ll actually choreograph how we load the truck and how we unload the truck. It is tight whenever you travel with a show- it takes a lot of planning.”

Although the crew will only be given a day to prepare the show, Head of Rigging, Michael Lee, said, “Since we have run the show more than a couple times, it won’t take horribly long to set everything up.”

In order to gain funding for the performance, mainly the rigging for the show (which will cost $10,000), Ms. Wilson has created a GoFundMe that the cast continues to advertise on social media. Bella Ondevilla, a member of ensemble, said, “Already [a day after the news was released to the school], I’ve seen a lot of support. I saw the GoFundMe yesterday: we had nearly 2000.” Alice Bell, another ensemble member, added, “We hit 3000 this morning.” As of the second week of April, the donations were at over $5000.

Secondly, Ms. Wilson is scheduling a benefit performance for the show in order to raise some more money. Roth said, “… We will be doing our Benefit Performance for Matilda in June.” Wilson specified that this extra performance will not only be intended for more funds but also serve as a chance for the cast and crew to practice within their own space.

Thirdly, the cast and crew have also been promoting a chocolate fundraiser on social media which is intended to financially support rigging for their spring musical: The Little Mermaid. Lee said, “… We plan on taking a portion of that to send people to Nationals.”

Many of the cast and crew members are looking forward to watching The Color Purple, to be performed by Alexandria Senior High School, on Juneteenth at the ITF. Additionally, Roth said, “We also will get to attend the workshops offered each day of the festival. It is going to be such an enriching experience, and I am so grateful that it is something our community gets to be a part of.”

This will be a particularly special experience for the seniors involved in the production. Mansfield said, “I love going out with a bang. Receiving such a huge honor at the end of my highschool career gives me a lot of confidence for projects after high school. Matilda has already made me realize the importance of keeping up with theater in my future, but this achievement just takes all of that to a whole new level!”

Sarah Jacobson, a senior in ensemble for Matilda, said, “It is really special, even though it was my first show at Central- I waited till my senior year. It’s a really great way to finish off my high school career and my year of theater.”

On the opposite side of the spectrum, for the freshmen, Bell said, “It sets the tone for the next four years!” Ondevilla said, “It has my confidence going up, up, up for theater.”

Finally, Ms. Wilson said, “I don’t think that people outside realize the honor that this is. I think that this is like a sports team when they make state. It’s kind of like what we consider our nationals because we are being chosen from great programs around the country to be able to have this honor.”