The Dover Drama Department has begun planning the 2024 spring musical, Matilda. Dance auditions will be held on the Dec 14 and 15, and vocal auditions will be on Dec 18 and 19.

Before the auditions, the musical needs a large amount of time over the school year to plan. Vocal director Samatha Roberts said, “We start picking a show around April every year. Once we pick the show, our team starts filling out paperwork to get the rights, planning a rehearsal, designing the set/costumes, and setting up auditions. All of this goes up until auditions in December and then our show is in March. This means that the planning takes all year.”

The creativity put into the musical is an important part of planning, but is also the hardest part. Director Jamie Brandstadter, said, “It [the musical] is a creative process, and creativity cannot be rushed. I sometimes have trouble with that. I get so frustrated if I have a lull in ideas. I came up with the overarching vision and concept that I wanted to push most of all, and from there, pieces are falling into place: costumes, sets, advertising, etc.”

The auditions are a key component of planning the musical. It is difficult for the actors to audition and the director has the hard job of picking who to choose to play each part. Roberts said, “Students have to learn a dance together and then audition for it. They also have to pick a song and come in and sing it for a panel of judges. After regular auditions, we have call-back auditions for any students we want to hear from again.”

The musical planning begins to come together after the auditions. After the audition, practice for the musical starts and ends in just a few months. With all of the difficulties of planning the musical, it all comes together in a great show. Senior Sanyah Roloson, a participant in previous musicals, said, “My favorite part is the last few weeks before opening night when everything just starts falling into place. The moment when we finally start to see the show we’ve created, is such a magical part of the process and I think it gives everyone the drive to make the show as good as we can.”