SHAWANO, WI- The curtain raised for the first performance of Matilda The Musical at Shawano High School Thursday. For 5th grader Delaney Pensis, it was an opportunity that many kids do not get at her age.

“They told me that I could be Matilda, and I was like, Wow, that’s the lead role,” Pensis said.

The role of Matilda includes lots of lines, more than 10 songs and lots of time on stage under the spotlight. Co-Director Matthew Pfantz says that is not something that a 5th grader would normally experience.

“It was never our full intent for sure to cast an elementary aged student in the lead role or other bigger roles, but we had a lot of talent that came out to audition.” He says the numbers in the program have been done since COVID and they needed to use this year to jump start some new life into the performing arts.

For Pensis, she has been working hard from the time of casting to bring the lead character Matilda to life.

“It’s kind of scary, but it’s still pretty exciting.”

Matilda is a young girl with wit, intelligence and psychokinetic powers. She is unloved by her parents (Lydia Green and AJ York), but impresses the loveable Miss Honey, played by Senior Leslie Lemerond. Meanwhile students have to deal with the high unlovable Miss Trunchbull, played by Savannah Elgin.

The show also includes 8th Graders Paige Bedroske, Caroline Bergmann, Emma Effenberger, Harper Rettke, and Oliva Winslow. It also includes 7th Graders Lillian Hidde, Mikelah Powers and Evie Kuehl as Bruce. This is Kuehl’s second show at Shawano High School as she was the young Gretl in Sound of Music.

The show also has other younger kids with title roles. 5th Grader Kenzie Morstad plays Hortensia, 6th Grader Nora Weiland plays Tommy, 4th Grader Logan Seehafer plays Nigel and 4th Grader Adele Buenning plays Alice.

Director’s Pfantz and Alex Konen say they had to make some hard decisions when it came to casting. “We decided to invite younger students to audition as the cast has been limited to mostly high school students in past years.

“Our program was a little down from COVID, so we wanted to find some other students to get involved in theater, so we chose a show that would give the option to include younger kids,” Pfantz said. He says the challenge for someone Pensis’s age is that it there is a lot to memorize and it is vocally taxing on your voice. “There is a lot that goes into teaching a fifth grader all of that stuff, but she is doing a great job and I think she has a bright future.”

Penis said the song “Quiet” in Act 2 has been the most challenging. “There are a bunch of rests in that piece of music and it’s pretty difficult.” She says she has enjoyed the dancing and singing and the song “Revolting Children” is one of her favorites.

Pensis said she would like to possibly do more shows once she gets in high school. “I know now that I have done one, I can do more.”

“Delaney is absolutely fantastic and I am very excited for her,” Pfantz said.

Because some 4th and 5th graders were in cast, the students at Olga Brener got to see the dress rehearsal on Wednesday. Pensis says it was a good group to have witness her first time in the spotlight.

“That one was less scary because they are kids, but I’m the same age as them, so I was worried that people would give me a hard time at school if I did something wrong, but I must have done a lot of things right because lots of people were saying that was great.”

For Directors Pfantz and Konen, they hope this opportunity opens some doors.

“We were hearing that the kids wanted to get involved in future shows. “We are getting people excited and hopefully it will get more people out for next year’s musical.

Click Below To Listen To Delaney Pensis and Matthew Pfantz talk about the unique musical.