Actors will be flying and singing across the stage at McHale Performing Arts Center for this year’s Winter Fantasy show on Nov. 22, 23 and 24.
Director Anthony Kinney chose to do “Matilda the Musical” this winter. In this show, several student actors will be playing schoolchildren.
“We are flying people, so that is people in harnesses and actually moving them around the stage in the air,” Kinney said. “We haven’t done that here at LHS since I’ve been here. So, I’m excited about attempting that for the first time, too.”
Senior Ava Martin, who plays Matilda, is also excited to play a lead role for the first time.
“I went to work, and I told everybody,” Martin said. “I was just so, so happy, so proud of myself, so satisfied, and I was just looking forward to it so much. I felt so giddy the whole night.”
Martin has loved theater since third grade when she got a letter in her mailbox inviting her to be in Logansport Junior Civic Theatre’s production of “Mary Poppins.”
“I just thought it sounded so fun, even though I’ve never seen the movie,” Martin said. “So I tried it, and I really enjoyed it. I got to sing and dance for the first time on stage, and I got to hang out with my friends. After that, I decided that I wanted to do it for as long as I could.”
Kinney and music directors Emily Pancake and Angela Ticen collaborated to choose who would play the lead role.
“You have to go vocals first because if they can’t sing the part, that’s an issue,” Kinney said. “Then, after that, you look at what they did in auditions, and you look to see who you think will fit each part character-wise, like who could bring that character out the best, and then you just kind of go partially on instinct on stuff for casting, once you have the vocal stuff down.”
Freshman Summer Michels is excited for her first shot at a musical. Even though she only got a small role, she is excited to show what she can do.
“I got into theater in sixth grade, when I joined my first show ‘The Day the Internet Died,’” Michels said. “I had a great time performing with my friends and knew I wanted to do it for a while. I love meeting up in the big groups and rehearsing lines.”
Even though everything is going well so far, Kinney is still slightly nervous.
“People are used to seeing kids, like smaller children, in those roles,” Kinney said. “Other high schools have done this musical before with high school students, and it’s worked really well. That’s the only thing. It’s the first musical we’ve done where a lot of the parts are high school actors playing kids who are 8-9 years old. So, that’s the only thing. If we can nail that part of it, then everything’s gonna be great for it.”
