A comical twist on a fairy tale shakes up the WU musical scene

When it comes to directing musicals, the excitement of joining together to produce something great is what Edward Powers, professor of theater, has enjoyed the most about his career.
”We get to take a group of people who may not know one another very well and work together to create a story, and people within the story,” said Powers. “We join together and become different lives, we get to share it with each other and the audience.”
One musical in particular, “Once Upon A Mattress,” is a show that Powers has enjoyed producing.This was the second time the musical has been put on at Waynesburg University. In 2003 Powers produced the musical, but this year he changed it up and made a comical version of the fairytale.
According to Powers, at some point in our lives everyone has pretended to be someone they were not, whether it was an action figure, celebrity, princess or sports star.
”As kids we pretend to be different people, like here, we play pretend,” said Powers. “Everyone gets to act like a character from a fairytale.”
”Once Upon A Mattress” is a fairytale about a mythical kingdom run by an overbearing queen. The queen secretly knows that if her son were to get married, he would take over the kingdom.
In order to keep him single, she makes a series of difficult tests for princesses so they will not pass. After all of the eligible princesses fail their tests, a new princess is brought in the hopes that she will be the one to pass the test. The test the queen creates for her is a test of “sensibility” – the queen makes the princess sleep on 20 mattresses with a pea underneath.
If the pea disturbs the princess’ sleep, it means she is a real princess and can marry the prince.
This musical is very different from the past two or three Waynesburg has done.
”Fairytales come off as more childlike and immature, but this musical is done in such a comical way that it isn’t a children’s story, it is more grown up,” said Powers.
The cast, along with Powers, knew that some dialogue would be funny and get a small chuckle, but others would get a laugh-out-loud response from the audience.
Opening night proved “Once Upon A Mattress” was very humorous and colorful.
Amanda Stillings, an art administrative student with a concentration in theater, has grown up in the arts.
“I love it, it’s so funny, quirky, zany, and it touches on different subjects that aren’t usually touched on in musicals,” said Stillings, who played the character of the evil queen. “We can make it funny without being inappropriate and it is still child friendly and fun for everyone.”
This is the second time Stillings has been involved in this musical. She ended her senior year of high school with this musical, and is ending this year with it as well.
When Stillings is not on stage for musicals, she is helping out behind the scenes.
Over the years, Powers has really helped push Stillings to learn different areas in theater.
In her freshman year, Stillings ran costumes, now she is the costume coordinator. She is also in charge of all the ticket situations, which includes putting prices into a system with who bought the tickets.
”I wear a lot of hats in the theater,” said Stillings. “With Waynesburg, theater is open to everyone, not just theater majors.”
Students can get involved in many different aspects of theater; being on stage is not the only way to get involved.
”Waynesburg University is a great place, and we are always open to new people,” said Stillings.