MIDLAND This month, the stage at Midland Community Theatre has been transformed into a world of pure imagination with the production of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
The musical is based on the 1964 children’s novel by Roald Dahl and has since spawned countless remakes including the movies, featuring Gene Wilder in 1971 and Johnny Depp in 2005.
The MCT production has kicked off the theater’s 2023 season with seven other shows on the schedule this year.
The musical follows a young Charlie Bucket and four other golden ticket winners who embark on a life-changing journey through Willy Wonka’s world including chocolate waterfalls, nutty squirrels and the great glass elevator, all to be revealed by Wonka’s army of curious Oompa-Loompas.
The musical is directed by MCT Executive Director Tim Jebsen who had just recently directed MCT’s production of “A Christmas Carol” back in December.
One of the things he’s been excited about with this musical is the recently added LED walls that were installed on stage at Davis Theatre I back in November.
This is the second production to utilize the screens.
“‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ is a perfect example of a show that I would’ve never done without that technology because it goes to so many diverse and fantastic locations that would’ve been almost impossible to pull that off on the stage, effectively,” Jebsen said. “So this is a great example of a show that we could produce because of the addition of that element to the show. It’s exciting to be able to produce a show that we probably couldn’t do before. It expands the number of type of shows that we can do in the future. It was a great opening weekend. We had a very enthusiastic audience that enjoyed the show. The actors are loving the fact that we got some applause and laughter and we’re looking forward to four more weeks of it.”
However, Jebsen says it’s still going to take a year or two before they can really get the hang of the new technology at MCT.
“It expands the option of what we can do,” Jebsen said. “You don’t want to have a small set piece on the stage and then have the audience imagine what the entire stage looks like. So by putting a large picture of a room filled with items made of candy or a mixed room or a street, all those things create more of a look and a vision for the audience and that certainly has expanded that. We’re getting used to the technology and the expansion of our ability to use the technology but it’ll probably take us about a year or two to truly get comfortable with all of it.”
The show is made up of 32 cast members, most of which have different parts.
“This show has kind of been an unusual cast,” Jebsen said. “It’s not necessarily a traditional musical. It’s actually kind of a smaller cast. There are 32 people involved in the show and we had about 40 something people involved in ‘Christmas Carol’ and we’ve had 50 or 60 people involved in a show before. But what that means is that everyone in the show is working on two or three different things and everyone, besides Willy Wonka and Charlie, are playing multiple characters and that’s a big challenge. It’s a big challenge for the actors and a big challenge for the costume designer and that’s been something that’s been fun for the actors. It’s not like they perform a scene and then sit back and do nothing for a long time. They’re constantly changing their costumes and going back and forth on and off stage performing and that keeps them energized and keeps them involved.”
Playing the role of the candy man himself is Robert Reed. The role of Charlie is being played by Cooper Green and Ryan Stennis while Daryl Berry plays Grandpa Joe.
The musical opened last week following the icy weather that plagued the Permian Basin. The show will run until March 4.
“It’s funny, I was so shocked that with all the weather we had last week, we had everyone make it to all the dress rehearsals and we were able to get everything done and get the show where we wanted it to be for opening night,” Jebsen said. “That was a challenging process but they rose to the occasion and that’s what’s so amazing about it.”
The 2023 MCT season will continue with “Sense and Sensibility” from March 24-April 15, “Rock of Ages” from April 28-May 13, “Leader of the Pack” from July 14-23, “Rumors” from Sept. 8-30, “The Diary of Anne Frank” from Oct. 6-15, “The Girl on the Train” from Oct. 20-Nov. 11 and finish with “The Sound of Music” from Nov. 17-Dec. 16.
“It’s the beginning of a new season so it’s a new opportunity for us to introduce a new series of plays,” Jebsen said. “Beyond ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ we have lots of other great shows planned for this year that we’re hoping audiences will be looking forward to. We’re already in rehearsals for ‘Sense and Sensibility’ which is already our second production. We have auditions coming up for ‘Rock of Ages,’ that’ll be the next show we do with the LEDs in Davis Theatre I. It is a time of renewal and beginnings. MCT is different. Most theaters operate on a summer to summer basis, so we’re unusual that we open at the beginning of the year. We open in January with a new year and a new season. That’s what makes it really special.”
If you go
- What: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
- Where: Midland Community Theatre.
- When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18, 2:30 p.m. Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m. March 3, 7:30 p.m. March 4.
- Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/mrxvuu24
