Being cast as a main lead in the spring musical can be enticing and adrenaline filled, but behind the final performance was weeks of pressure, preparation, and personal challenges to overcome.
On Feb. 26-27 and March 1, ‘Iolani put on a spring production of Matilda at the Hawaii Theatre Center. Student actors varying from seniors all the way to seventh graders took on main lead roles to help bring the story of Matilda to life. Through auditions, rehearsals and one-on-one vocal and late night practices, the three main leads found themselves balancing schoolwork and their performance pressures while also maintaining a strong connection with their fellow cast members. Through their hardships and successes, they revealed what it truly feels like to be at the center of a musical.
Matilda, the story’s main character, is a young girl whose intelligence and determination to fight for what’s right leads her to develop psychokinetic powers to fight against the mean and cruel Ms. Trunchbull. Meanwhile, at home she is dealing with neglectful parents who favor her lazy brother simply because he is a boy.
The performance by Maddy T. ’31 as Matilda was powerful. The young seventh-grade actor put forth all of her effort that made her performance memorable. It’s not very often that a seventh grader gets cast as a main lead for a big production. With this being one of her first major performances, she delivered a strong and powerful performance that impacted the audience.
Maddy connected with Matilda’s message of empowerment. Specifically the line, “Even if you’re little, you can do a lot.” She said, “It’s empowering for people who are younger.”
AJ M. ’26, who played Ms. Trunchbull — a strict and intimidating principal with a deep rooted hatred for kids — explained that he favors playing antagonist characters and that in a way, he related to her too. He clarified that he does not relate to the character’s behavior, but instead related and understood her desire to have a sense of control.
He said, “Ms. Trunchbull doesn’t like people doing unpredictable things, and for me, even though I myself am a very unpredictable person, I do like having a sense of control.” He added that antagonist roles tend to bring more of a unique energy to the stage: “There’s an intriguing energy to them. Obviously, you’re scared of them, but there’s also something that makes you want to know their entire backstory.”
On stage, he successfully portrayed the role of Ms. Trunchbull through fully capturing her emotions and rage.
Leilani S. ’27, who played Matilda’s shy, kind, and timid first grade teacher, ms. Honey, explained that her mom really wanted her to get this role and she did too. When asked about advice for people who are too scared to join the theater program, she said, “Just go for it. If you don’t overcome your fear once, you will continue to be scared and never get over it.”
This is very similar to Ms. Honey’s story in the show. Ms. Honey has a hard time confronting Ms. Trunchbull about her cruel ways of discipline. For example the pigtail hammer throw, which is where she would grab the students’ pigtails and spin them in circles and fling them out the building. Although Ms. Honey was nervous to confront Ms. Trunchbull, once she pushed through her fear, new opportunities opened for her.
Leilani’s perfect performance of Ms. Honey brought out empathy from the audience and made people fond of her.
For the three leads, one of the biggest challenges was managing their time. Rehearsals often went from 3:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. which left little time for schoolwork.
AJexplained, “When you get into a show […] once you get into the whole thing, then it’s just go, go, go, go until the show happens.”
Additionally, each actor faced different performance challenges.
Leilani struggled with the vocal demands of the role. Being cast as a main lead required constant singing throughout the entire performance. With the help from directors during one-on-one sessions, she was able to strengthen her confidence and delivered a great and strong performance.
Maddy found the physical portion to be on the challenging side. The Matilda role required her to sing whilst performing high energy choreography, which tested her endurance throughout rehearsals.
Despite these challenges, the three main leads relied heavily on the support from their directors and their fellow cast members. During rehearsals, the three often went separately with directors to improve their performance.
That being said, maintaining a strong community was necessary to the success of the production. AJ emphasized, “The energy can be intimidating, but it’s also very inviting… but we’re also, very, very open to new people, because we can’t be exclusive, otherwise the program will die out. We’re always ready to talk with people. … There were a lot of eighth and seventh graders. A lot of them are new to Iolani, new to musical theater, new to everything.
And they were kind of thrown into the process, but we were very happy to get to know them.”
Having that sense of connection between the cast helped not only the main leads, but the other cast members to grow comfortable with their roles.
Before they reached the stage, all three leads went through the same audition process as everyone else. Students, no matter what role they were trying out for, were required to perform songs and participate in dance auditions. Once the first round was completed, some were asked back for callbacks.
Additionally, directors held workshops beforehand to help students prepare, especially for those who were new or nervous about performing.
Although auditions can be intimidating, all three leads agreed that taking that first leap of faith is crucial. For Maddy, having a friend audition alongside her helped ease her nerves and made the experience more enjoyable.
The success of Matilda was not just the result of talent, but it was the result of commitment, collaboration and the cast being able to overcome challenges.