What was once a dark empty stage standing lone in an empty theater was flawlessly transformed into an epicenter of laughter and magic in Sentinel High School’s production of Once Upon a Mattress.
Set in the early 1400s, Once Upon a Mattress is the supposed “true story” of the classic fairy tale The Princess and the Pea. The musical stars Princess Winnifred, Prince Dauntless, Sir Harry, Lady Larken, King Sextimus, and Queen Aggravain, as played by Kelsie LaRocque, Eli Henderson, Rielly Buchholz, Fern Morrissey, Alex Henri, and Patience Matt.
Being that this is the first musical to take place at Sentinel in over six years, it comes as no surprise that both the crew and cast spared no effort in making this production the best it could possibly be.
The stage was set with a structure of wood, styrofoam, and canvas that was painted and sculpted to resemble the stone walls of a grand palace. Each cast member wore a beautiful costume to match the beauty of the stage set that shimmered just as brilliantly.
Each of the twenty songs performed was undeniably captivating and paired with humorous dialogue that worked to flush out each character while also maintaining the sincerity of the love stories.
From beginning to end, these performances were nothing less than stunning, and to the audience, they may have appeared practically effortless. However, what may appear bright, beautiful, and simplistic to the audience, actually comes with weeks of hard work, determination, and struggle from those behind the curtain.
From the perspective of the audience, it can be difficult to understand the effort and complexities that are put into creating an entire musical through the smokescreen of sparkly costumes and beautiful voices. While this is the intentional illusion orchestrated by the cast and crew, it leaves the audience unaware of the effort put in by the entire department in the months leading up to the performance as well as the struggles of the days themselves
In order to provide a view into the triumphs and difficulties of the theater department, the stage managers of the production, Kat Roming and Lily Marmon, offered an interview detailing their time spent on Once Upon a Mattress.
While both Roming and Marmom agree that the musical itself was a rousing success on all nights of the performance, their reflection on the weeks they spent working on the musical is not only an account of their successes, but also their struggles within the department.
One of the primary hurdles faced by the cast and crew was the requirement of learning how to operate tech on and off the stage that, prior to the show, most members had little to no experience with using.
In order to properly capture the voices of the cast, the crew utilized the clip-on microphones typically worn by the choir during shows. This allowed for the voices of the cast to be clear and loud throughout the theater; however, it also required the members of the sound crew – Ella Seaver and Elliott Hammer – as well as the main members of the cast to learn how to maintain proper positioning, sound quality, and volume of the microphones over the course of the few months they had before opening night.
Additionally, the sound crew was responsible for initiating numerous sound effects and music cues throughout the musical that served to maintain the pace and humor of the story.
Set and run is a large section of the crew,composed of members Victoria Beever, Jay Johnsonm Kaydence, Slagell, Alex Szuzukowski, and Ash Gregoire led by their crew heads Izzy Tempel and Lee Shelman. They were responsible not only for creating the grand set for the musical, but also for building and keeping track of numerous props – such as the enormous prop bed – and moving all of these pieces on and off the stage during scene changes.
These crews as well as that of the costumes, front of house, lights, props, and cast all put in enormous amounts of effort which is nothing to be said of the cast.
While the production team successfully overcame many of these hurdles, there were moments of tension that occurred on set when it came to putting the talents of these crews together.
Roming and Marmon agree that the primary struggle on set came with managing the scheduling conflicts between crews and among the cast. Additionally, frequent and sudden absences among the cast and crew made it difficult to keep the team updated on choreography and lines. These factors heavily contributed to high stress levels among the crew which made it difficult to convince many members to push through the difficult times and continue to see the production through to the end.
Despite the difficulties, the show went off without a hitch and both stage managers agreed that the effort and struggle was beyond worth the end result.
Once Upon a Mattress not only marked the conclusion of the theater season, but also the last show for the many seniors involved in the Sentinel theater program. Patience Matt, Kelsie LaRoque, Eli Henderson, Simon Montecillo, Meli Graham, Savannah Pfile, Danica Urbanec, Emma Mountan, Elisabeth Gregoire, Trevor Ridley, Lee Shelman, Alex Szczukowski, Ella Seaver, and Jadis Veal are all seniors leaving the program with nothing less than an astounding performance. Each night of Once Upon a Mattress was a rousing success, with two of the three production nights ending with a standing ovation.
With the deafening cheers of the audience came a rush of tears from the cast and crew as they came into the lights of the stage for their final bow, closing the curtain on the 2024-2025 theater season.
