It's true!!! "Matilda, Jr." is coming to Hagerstown!

The Indiana Arts Commission has awarded a grant to the Nettle Creek Players of Hagerstown, Indiana, to produce a youth production for young people from the 4th through the 12th grades. This is an educational award for members of the Players to train student actors from Wayne County and other areas surrounding Wayne County in Eastern Indiana in the art of producing a Broadway style show. 

The Nettle Creek Players are a professional summer stock theatre located in Hagerstown for the sole purpose of producing Broadway musicals in a large circus tent as entertainment in the community. Working with the Nettle Creek School Corporation and the Arts Commission, we are mounting this show in March, 2025, right before spring break with the workshop/rehearsals and auditions commencing on Saturday, January 4, 2025. 

What You Need to Know: 

Our tentative rehearsal schedule is part of this website, but we are planning on three rehearsals a week (Tuesday and Thursday evenings and mid-day Saturdays). 

Everyone who auditions will be cast in the show. Depending on the role, students may not be required to be at every rehearsal. Students earning larger parts need to plan on more rehearsals than the smaller roles. This show has two ensembles of kids (Little Kids and Big Kids) and they are on stage a great deal of the time mostly during musical numbers. Please look at the Character Synopsis and the Scene Synopsis for more information. The Music Synopsis can provide additional information as you determine what role or roles you would like to audition for in our show. 

Junior versions of Broadway shows are shortened from the original, and the voice ranges are adjusted for unchanged and changing voices for the age groups who perform them. “Matilda, Jr.” runs about 60 – 80 minutes and we would do the show without an intermission. In this shortened format, students will learn how to sing the music, how to audition to earn a role in the show (everyone is cast as something), how to act, how to do choreography while they sing, how to work with other actors on the stage, and how to have fun while they are working very hard to produce a great show!!! They will also get an opportunity to help with costumes and building the set. 

“Matilda,” is a very interesting show full of many diverse and unique characters – most of the parts are smaller (great for novices), and there are many parts to go around. This show is based on the Roald Dahl novel and the 1996 movie of the same name. Each student will be asked for a $30 registration fee, which can be paid here, for the project to be enrolled in the workshop and will receive a tee-shirt for the show. (We do not want this fee to keep potential students from participating, so let us know your personal situation.) 

We plan to have an information meeting for students and their parents who are interested in participating in December. We will add that time and location to this website once we have a firm date and time. 

The current Nettle Creek Players Board President, Margie Hamm, was selected to direct and choreograph the show and Ms. Hamm connected with Miss Makayla Cranfill, a Hagerstown music educator, to be the Music Director. When we received the grant notification and approval, we got very excited to bring this production to Hagerstown. We are looking forward to working together with local students to produce the Broadway show – “Matilda, Jr.” 

Ms. Hamm is a life-long performer and music educator. She was a member of the professional Nettle Creek Players company from 1974 – 1978 and Nettle Creek was a key learning experience for this dancer, singer, and actor to learn all aspects of the technical side of theatre as well. Ms. Hamm recently retired from Nativity Catholic School in Indianapolis after 20 years of teaching in that community. She brings her reputation as an excellent educator who produced high school quality productions with her middle school students to the stage in Hagerstown. (Prior teaching experience includes High School, Junior High School, College (one year) and hundreds of Community Theatre productions.) Since retirement, she continues to teach private voice lessons and direct/choreograph youth productions at Creative Grounds Fine Arts Academy in Indianapolis.

Ms. Cranfill is working in her second year as a Music Educator in the Nettle Creek School Corporation. A graduate of Ball State University, she is from Connersville. She is looking forward to her first experience of directing music for a Broadway show. 

This team will work with our students to produce the best musical production with our cast members who choose to participate!