In late February of 2020, Young People’s Theater began rehearsals for the highly anticipated production of Matilda. One week in, coronavirus shut down the show along with the rest of the world for two years. Now, in February of 2022, rehearsals are set to begin again.

Young People’s Theater (YPT) is an organization that puts on musical theater performances each year, only done by performers eighteen years old and younger. Some of their recent productions include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Drowsy Chaperone, and The Spongebob Musical. YPT has formed a strong and resilient community over the many years they have been putting on shows and providing theater camps, dance classes, and tech camps.

When Matilda closed down in March of 2020, confusion and fear riddled the cast and crew. Things were set to run, and then all of a sudden, they weren’t. No one knew the scope of the pandemic, and YPT closed down Matilda indefinitely.

Original cast member Claire Hurley was in the group when it first shut down.

  “I was definitely nervous, since nothing like that had ever happened before,” Hurley had been cast in an ensemble group of ‘Generally Terrible Adults’ originally.

During the pandemic, YPT pushed through, determined to give people the chance to do theater, with online camps perfecting acting skills, tech camps, and small summer camps where they did put on performances, masked and without a live audience.

In January of 2022, YPT took a huge step towards normalcy; A mainstage production of The Spongebob Musical. It was performed in the black box theater at the YPT studio, but there was a live audience and the performers performed without masks. Audience members had to show proof of vaccination and wear masks, and the show spread out its performances over two weekends instead of the typical one weekend.

When Matilda announced that rehearsals were going to start up again February 28th, the buzz of excitement flew through the cast and crew. Everything was falling into place again, it felt real. Hurley says that when she found out the news she was “thrilled to be back again. I was really looking forward to doing Matilda.”

No matter what role people played originally, there is a collective anticipation and excitement for the long awaited production. 

“I think this just goes to show that the show must go on, even if it takes a year or two to get it up and running again,” Hurley said.

Anybody can come see the show on May 13-15 at the Power Center for the Performing Arts.