Last Friday, the cast of Matilda held a teaser for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at the local elementary schools. For the performance, the cast showed some of the scenes from the musical and answered questions from the audience about Gibson Southern’s theatre department and the production. 

“There are a couple reasons we put on the teaser,” director Adam Bledsoe said. “The first and biggest reason for us is it is a great recruitment opportunity. It is great for those kids that would be interested in something like theatre, so they can be exposed to it at an early grade level.” 

The teaser was a time to work on some of the scenes from the play in front of an audience and gave the cast and crew a chance to see some of the things they needed to work on for the performances on March 14th, 15th and 16th.

“The teaser gives us benchmarks to hit,” Bledsoe said. “It forces us to have a goal to have costumes and scenes done at a certain date that isn’t the weekend of the show. We also get the opportunity to see what works with specific scenes and get immediate feedback.” 

The teaser was a time for the cast to experiment to see what they can do well for the upcoming performances. If they don’t get to see it on stage during this time, then they wouldn’t know what they need to do in order to put on the best show possible when the time comes.

“The teaser is a good experiment to see what we need to improve on,” sophomore Abby Scheller said. “With a young audience, it’s a good test to see what works and what is believable. The kids believed the magic in the show which was a great thing for us to showcase.” 

The elementary students came to the high school in the late afternoon for a field trip and watched some of the scenes that were chosen by Bledsoe. The kids also had the opportunity to ask some of the cast questions about the high school and its theatre department. Many of the elementary kids were left mystified by the magic scenes in the teaser. They were sitting on the edge of their seats. 

“I enjoy doing things like the teaser for these kids because I have been doing things in theater since I was nine years old,” said sophomore Ava Bartley. “It is great to be able to expose kids to something that has brought me so much joy. It is a lot of fun.”