Whenever he stages a show for Rise Above Performing Arts with many young characters, Artistic Director Jacob Ruscoe knows he will see a lot of people sign up for auditions, but even he was surprised by the “huge response” for his upcoming production of “Matilda: The Musical.”

“We have a cast of 32 and we had about 80 people audition,” Ruscoe said about the musical based on one of the last novels by author Roald Dahl, published in 1988.

“Matilda” is about a young girl (she’s 5 in the book, but older on stage), whose parents don’t care about her – the father would have preferred a boy. She is sent to a school run by a tyrannical headmistress, but Matilda finds some nurturing and caring from one of her teachers, Miss Honey. She begins to share her own, happier stories about a little girl wi

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