Stage lights shine brightly on the eager performers in Encore Jr.’s "... Once Upon a Mattress"

INTERVIEW PREVIEW THEATER & DANCE

Once Upon a Mattress

Kylie Scarpace is Princess Winnifred the Woebegone in "...Once Upon a Mattress." Photo Courtesy of Michele Anliker.

It’s six days before opening night and a group of young singers stand around the lobby of the Encore Musical Theatre in Dexter listening intently to musical director Cheryl VanDuzen lead them carefully through an ensemble number from Once Upon a Mattress.

Inside the theater, three actors are working on blocking a bit of stage business, getting used to a set that only became available a couple days before. It will be an intense few days for the young performers in preparation for a March 3 opening night.

For many stars of stage, movies, and television it was in theaters like this that a love of acting began -- in acting camps and after school programs. Thalia Schramm is casting and program director for Encore and directs many adult shows for the company and is the director of the youth theater production. She had worked as a camp counselor up north and “loved working with kids.”

“When I started working at Encore in 2009, when [the company] started, they didn’t have a summer program, so in 2010 I started a summer program, which has grown from four sessions and about 30 kids to 10 sessions and about 200 kids every summer,” she said.

Last year Encore started a winter youth program with a production of Seussical the Musical. The program is open to children up to 18 years old. This year 31 students are participating, ages 7 to 16.

This year’s show is called Getting to Know ... Once Upon a Mattress as a requirement of Rodgers and Hammerstein licensing for junior versions of established adult musicals. The additional intro is taken from the song "Getting to Know You" in the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic The King and I.

“What’s really great about theater licensing companies is they have junior versions of their big shows, so they are already cut down and made more appropriate for kids,” Schramm said, taking a little burden off the director.

Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy based on the fairy tale of the princess and the pea, with music by Mary Rodgers, daughter of Richard Rodgers, and lyrics by Marshall Barer. It is noted for its broad humor and larger than life characters set in “days of yore.”

“I really love Once Upon a Mattress,” Schramm said. “I remember watching it when I was little. The music is great and it’s really funny.”

Schramm said the show is great for kids with good songs and humor that appeals to both children and adults.

“It’s really sassy. It’s awesome,” she said.

The task of creating an entertaining production is also “awesome” and daunting, but working with young actors has an added dimension.

“I’ll be honest, it’s super difficult,” Schramm said.

She helmed Encore's Mary Poppins at the end of last year, "which I directed with a lot of adults who are all trained actors and have natural instincts that you can hone into a performance. With a lot of kids, it’s their first theater experience ever, except summer camp, so they don’t have natural instincts like when you’re on stage you shouldn’t turn your back on the audience to talk to someone. It’s things like that where you have to be very specific and constantly loving and nurturing, which I love. I loved summer camp and watching how kids develop their musical theater skills and really have that breakthrough where they realize that what they’re doing is really great, is awesome.”

When auditioning for various parts, Schramm looks for the singers first, having the hopeful young actors bring in a favorite song to perform and then on callbacks having them sing a song from the show.

“I give them some feedback and see how they can take direction and how they understand the music and prepare for the callback which is really important,” she said. “We have a lot of really fantastic parents attached to these students that are really supportive in helping their kids prepare. I’m looking for kids who are really excited.”

Schramm is happy to hand musical direction over to Cheryl VanDuzen, a music teacher with 30 years of experience who had once taught Schramm when she was a student at Rudolph Steiner High School in Ann Arbor.

“I’ve had a lot of training and I kind of know that the main thing about it is really listening and getting the kids to listen to each other,” VanDuzen said. “Most kids can sing but it’s a matter of them learning to listen and learning the proper singing placement and mouth position.”

VanDuzen also finds its important to keep up her energy as she leads her young singers through their paces and seemingly endless repetition to keep their singing proper even as they move on to struggle with staging and choreography.

“If I don’t show energy, they’re not going to show energy,” she said.

Three featured actors in the play were showing a lot of energy and enthusiasm as the big opening day approached.

Once Upon a Mattress

Kylie Scarpace's Princess Winnifred the Woebegone wonders what's in the box. Photo Courtesy of Michele Anliker.

Kylie Scarpace, 13, a student at Discovery School in Canton, plays Princess Winnifred, a role made famous by a young Carol Burnett. Scarpace said Winnifred “says she’s shy but she’s not.”

“I think the show is really unique and it’s interesting to do the show because everybody has heard the story of The Princess and Pea and this is kind of like the true story, so it’s being told from a different perspective of what’s really happening. I think that’s really cool,” Scarpace said.

Kilas Gallimore, 13, a student at Emerson School in Ann Arbor, plays Prince Dauntless who learns, “you really have to stand up for yourself and turn around and say that’s enough.”

The person he has to say enough to is Queen Aggrivaine, his mother, played by Cassie Bergen, 15, a student at Dexter High School.

“She is very sassy, very emotional, and does not want her son to marry anyone,” said Bergen.

All three young actors have found a warm place under the theater lights.

“My mom always told me I was talking before I was walking, so I’m always singing my entire life and I love playing dress up,” Scarpace. “That’s kind of what got me into it and love for Disney and my first show was The Wizard of Oz and I just fell in love with theater.”

Gallimore said his older sister was in a play when he was 6.

“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really cool.’ It never came to my mind that I might want to do that some day,” he said.

His mother signed him up for acting camp and he landed a spot as an Oompa Loompa in a production of Willie Wonka.

“After the show, I said I want to be an Oompa Loompa again.”

He did try out for another Willie Wonka production and was cast as Mike TV and “then I wanted to try other roles and I fell in love with it and wanted to do more.”

This isn’t Bergen’s first experience with Once Upon a Mattress. Her first experience with theater was the Encore summer camp and she sang the show’s comic song “Shy” at the audition.

“I made people laugh and I loved getting reactions from people and seeing what I do on stage affects people and they can relate that to their lives," she said. "I hope to pursue acting and interacting with people because that’s what I want to do."

But she sums up the experience that all the performers have in working together to make words and music come alive.

“I like the group of young people who are coming together to tell a story and have fun with each other and help each other,” she said.

Others in the featured roles are Matthew Rupp as Sir Harry, Paige Vander Haagen as Lady Larkin, Maddie Johal-Smith as Minstral, Chloe Scarpace as Jester, Lydia Hall as Wizard, and Alex Cantu as the King.


Hugh Gallagher has written theater and film reviews over a 40-year newspaper career and was most recently managing editor of the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers in suburban Detroit.


"Getting to Know ... Once Upon A Mattress" will be presented March 3 and 10 at 7 pm and March 4, 5, 11, and 12 at 2 pm at Encore Musical Theatre, 3126 Broad Street, Dexter. Tickets are $20 for adults and seniors and $15 for children under 17. For tickets, call 734-268-6200 or go online to theencoretheatre.org/tickets.