At the ripe old age of 11, Nora Mae Dixon has the distinction of being an out-of-town actress in the title role of Music Theatre Wichita’s “Matilda.”
“I’m really excited. I’ve never done something that’s out of town from where I live,” the Overland Park native said. “It’s a really great, cool experience.”
Based on Roald Dahl’s children’s book, Matilda Wormwood is a 5-year-old girl who loves reading and happens to have the power of telekinesis, despite setbacks caused by her parents and a crude school headmistress.
“Matilda” opens later this week.
Artistic director Brian J. Marcum, who is also the director-choreographer for “Matilda,” said that when the pre-teen actress auditioned earlier this year, he and company manager Amanda Bowman looked at each other and instantly agreed they’d found their leading lady.
“Nora Mae came in and she had a good sense of who Matilda was, and she felt like a seasoned pro already,” he said. “She had a great take on her early on.”
She said she felt confident after the auditions.
“I definitely was hoping I got it,” she said. “There were four girls that were called back, and I had a feeling I might get it. It was a little bit of a shock, but I felt like I was right for it.”
Marcum said he was impressed with the young talent who auditioned.
“We had a lot of great kids come in and they’re all Kansas kids. We have so many great voice studios and dance studios here in town, and the kids learn much earlier than they ever used to,” he said. “They have so much access to so much stuff that they’re so good so early.”
Marcum said that although performers of any age must be talented in acting, singing and dancing, “Your real job is to audition really well, because if you don’t audition well, you’ll never get on stage.”
The 10 young performers, plus an understudy and two “swing” actors, took part in a four-day, four-hour-a-day “boot camp” the week before rehearsals began for the adult cast members.
“It was nice to have them concentrated for a bit,” Marcum said. “We learned two or three of their numbers in four days and the kids were just spectacular.”
Nora Mae has already built up a theater resume including playing Tootie last year in “Meet Me in St. Louis” and the young version of the title role in “Anastasia” for Theatre in the Park in Overland Park (alongside the actress who played the young version on Broadway); “Fun Home” in March for Olathe Civic Theatre; and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” at The Coterie in Kansas City.
She imagines a future for herself as an actress.
“I really like doing this. I think I can, and I hope to” become a professional performer, she said. “It’s just so cool to be here. It’s theater and everyone is like …”
Nora Mae gives an open hand to the rest of the cast.
“She found her people,” Marcum said.
Since “Matilda” first appeared in London’s West End in 2011 and on Broadway in 2013, the role of headmistress Miss Trunchbull has been played by a man.
MTW’s production is the second time that David Lowenstein, a former teaching colleague of Marcum’s at Syracuse University, has played the part.
“The secret is stamina,” he said of playing the role, where he conjures up a combination of Miss Mackay from the “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and Maggie Smith.
“Trunchbull is a little over the top,” said Lowenstein, an MTW veteran whose credits include Cogsworth in last year’s “Beauty and the Beast” and “Kinky Boots” in 2022. “I don’t think of it as a drag role, I think of it as a man playing a woman who has a particular backstory and a certain point of view.”
Lauralyn McClelland and Chris Stevens play Matilda’s parents, who would rather not be bothered with the precocious tyke.
“Whenever you play a villain, you have to not think of them as a villain. You have to figure out why they think the way they do,” said McClelland, a MTW veteran from 2017. “It’s inconvenient for them to have this child, basically. I want to do my nails and go to my dance classes, and she always wants to tell me stories, and that’s very inconvenient for me.”
“Villains have to work a little harder because you have to work to get the audience to like us first before we turn evil,” said Stevens, whom Marcum choreographed as Buddy in “Elf” at Syracuse. “It’s tricky. You have to find the balance of making them human and learning why you feel sorry for Matilda.”
McClelland, who understudied the maternal role in “Matilda” on Broadway during its 2013-2017 run, said she was appreciative that Marcum had changed the setting to America.
“We’re not doing the British accents across the board,” said the actress, who is adopting a Brooklyn/New Jersey type of inflection. “I’ve really been able to play with the newness and a different type of Mrs. Wormwood.”
Marcum said he made the change for the sake of the audience.
“If you listen to it, sometimes it doesn’t scan so well for our American ears the way that it’s written,” he said. “The story is great, and the lyrics are very smart, but we as Americans may not be able to understand it as well.”
Mrs. Trunchbull, however, remains British.
“She could be at any private school in Kansas and be from over there,” Marcum said.
Music director Jesse Warkentin said he’s been a fan of the story since he was in fourth grade, when his teacher read the book to the class at the end of the school day.
“I just remember being so transfixed by the magic and this funky little girl,” said Warkentin, who is a fan of comedian Tim Minchin, who wrote the music and the lyrics. “His work is kind of off-color but so clever. I knew it would be a great marriage of storytelling and music writing.”
As for the score, “it’s quirky, it’s clever,” he added. “The music sticks in your head.”
As he did with MTW’s production of “Frozen,” Marcum said he prides himself on his ability to cast the right performers, and once rehearsals begin trusts many of the actors’ intuitions for the role over his own.
“I want the actors when they come here, from the little kids to the resident ensemble to the Equity actors have a say in it,” he said.
‘MATILDA’ BY MUSIC THEATRE WICHITA
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 31, and Thursday, Aug. 1; 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3; and 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 4
Where: Century II concert hall, 225 W. Douglas
Tickets: $26-$76, from mtwichita.org, 316-265-3107 or the Century II box office
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