Up & Coming Weekly

January 24, 2023

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JANUARY 25 - 31, 2023 UCW 13 Two casts and pulling out all the stops, CFRT's 'Matilda' aims to impress by KATHLEEN RAMSEY COVER KATHLEEN RAMSEY, Staff Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Callie Tisdale sits in the middle of the studio space at Cape Fear Regional eatre. Behind her are dozens of props adorning one side of the large room and on the opposite side chairs line the wall with adult actors watching rehearsals waiting on their own lines. On the floor, just in front of Tisdale is a well-worn spiral bound script book. She reads and rereads the lines. She is wearing a T-shirt with the icons of famous Broadway plays pictured across the front in the shape of a heart and behind her right ear, she's tucked her fuchsia pencil that she's using to make notes. She takes the process very seriously. She's committed. Her mom was involved in theater too. When asked, she'll say she wants to be an actress in New York one day. "I feel like it would be really fun. It would be a really cool experience to be on Broadway," she says. is week, Tisdale will star on the Main Stage in a school uniform, standing against the cruelty of adults that surround her and having incred- ible super powers. "I always wanted to do 'Matilda.'" Tisdale and Isabel Iatauro, another child actor in the community, will share the honor of performing as the main character, Matilda, in the CFRT's upcoming production of "Matilda e Musical." is show is a little different for the folks at CFRT as they have two youth casts playing the parts and will switch between them on the various showtimes. "I'm used to directing a large num- ber of kids, that's not out of the ordi- nary," Marc de la Concha, the show's director and an actor at CFRT, says. "But there's a lot that's involved with this. We have two companies of kids. It's not a normal rehearsal process." De la Concha crosses the room to Tisdale. ey have known each other for a few years now. Both of the ac- tors performed in "Shrek" together. ey quietly discuss things in the script book amongst themselves. He gives her a little direction that she details in her book with her pink pencil. ey discuss for a moment more than he walks off the rehearsal space to begin the scene again. e adult actors in this room have already done this scene with Iatauro. Now, it's Tisdale's turn. e actors begin again. e show meanders between the dark and the comical — a little mix of the Matilda of the 90s, the one in the book and the British play — all in an English accent. "We are balancing between them," de la Concha says. "It has the poten- tial to go [dark] but we are trying to keep it on the lighter side." Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, played by Kevin David Stevens and Kelly Felthous respectively, take the stage. ey dance around in a silly, comically aggressive manner until Tisdale's line breaks into the scene and they suddenly stop. Now, comes the adult anger and the yelling at Matilda commences. As they finish the scene, Felthous comes up to Tis- dale, reminds her that she's amazing and tells her how great she did. Felthous loves to play the villain as long as she can remind the young ac- tors of their great worth in-between her lines where she has to be mean to them. She even finds herself help- ing with homework on occasion. "After every scene we reconnect. We try to keep it as this is the scene and separating the two," Felthous says. e actors fall out of the scene and others take their places. ey are on to the next scene. "Up stage left, please," de la Con- cha says to Tisdale. She nods and moves to her place on the floor. Tis- dale is mild-mannered and intensely focused in her scenes. ey'll play out another scene involving Rus- sian gangsters mixed with Matilda's family. "is show is difficult to cast," says Merrill Peiffer, who plays Trunch- bull. "Not only do you need physical comedians but these roles are very specific." For Peiffer, there is a thrill to be considered for the Trunchbull. In the typical stage versions of the play, the Trunchbull was played by a man. In the movies, however, women will play the role as there are ways to alter the look and feel of the female characters to make them more menacing, larger in stature. With the stage, this is harder to accomplish, Peiffer says. "It was cool to feel like they had the trust in me — that I was capable," Peiffer says. "Men get a lot of opportuni- ties to play roles and I don't feel bad about taking this role away from them." Peiffer's illusion of the Trunch- bull's meanness reaches into even rehearsals. e children in the play, she says, often come to look at her before the start of a scene, checking to make sure she's "human." is gives her and other of the adult actors a good laugh. " … I mean Miss Trunchbull can be scary sometimes. Some- times. Sometimes. But she's re- ally, really nice," Tisdale laughs. is gets a laugh from de la Concha as well. "I mean they would probably yell at me in real life if I dyed their hair green or stuck a hat to their head … but I know none of them are actually mean," Tisdale says. e other challenge of the play was choreographing both groups of kids and involving the interac- tive portions of the play like the swings they use in some of the numbers. At one point, actors will be swinging on large swings that come out over the audience. "What is really wonderful about these kids is they want to be here. is is something that when you ask them — they want to be a part of this," Charlie Sutton, the show's choreogra- pher, says. "ey are choosing to spend 8 hours a day with us everyday." is isn't to say that Sutton has his difficulties. "It's fun watching Charlie teach the kids. 'Don't run the other direction. Come back now. You can't have a snack,'" Felthous says laughing. She stops for a brief moment, smiles and then says, "ese kids stand up to every professional show I've done. Come see these children." "Matilda e Musical" runs Jan. 26 through Feb. 19. CFRT is located at 1209 Hay Street in Fayetteville. For tickets or ad- ditional information contact the box office at 910-323-4233 or visit www.cfrt.org/. Callie Tisdale plays Matilda in the Trunchbull Cast. Merrill Peiffer plays Miss Trunchbull. Isabel Iatauro plays Matilda in the Honey Cast.

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