Once Upon a Mattress

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS STILL FIRM IN 2023

Audiences came to the McDonogh Theatre Department’s spring production of Once Upon a Mattress for the lords and ladies, stayed for the talented student performers, and left with a sense of what we all can learn from musical theatre! Dance and theatre teacher Nina Pongratz explains in her Director’s Notes:

Once Upon a Mattress takes Hans Christian Andersen’s classic 1835 story, The Princess and the Pea, and resets it in 1428, in the midst of moats and knights and damsels in distress. So, how does a 200-year-old fairy tale set 600 years ago hold up in 2023?

Well, it has jokes, brilliant songs, lyrics by Broadway royalty, and iconic characters that we’ve known our whole lives. What really makes this show work today, though, is all the ways we recognize that it shouldn’t [work, that is]. By mixing time periods and styles and politics and science across centuries, the show reflects our world back at us, revealing the social and cultural journeys that got us here. Through brilliant innuendo, the dialogue, characters, and plot present to us a truly cringe-worthy gender landscape that still manages, through some witchcraft or magic, to offer relatable modern moments. We see ourselves, our parents, our not-distant-enough legacy onstage. And maybe, just maybe, through this process of recognition, we can strive to do better in the next century.

With each rehearsal, casting choice, design, and meeting, many collaborators helped weave the medieval tapestry. Student designers illustrated the animated backdrops that set the enchanted landscape our castle overlooks; the orchestra is a harmonious blend of professional and student musicians whose sensitivity magically brings this challenging score to life; student builders transport us to another place and time, and sound, prop, and costume design teams amplify swampy texture and bellowing notes.

Dana Thompson ’24, as Princess Winnifred, sings “Happily Ever After.”

Teddy Seward ’24, as Prince Dauntless the Drab, wishes he could find a suitable princess worthy of his mother’s expectations

Stage Manager Ebonie Bogle ’25 makes notes during a final rehearsal before opening night.

Megan Winakur ’24, Josie Kibel ’25, Vivie Labellarte ’26, Andrea Otrocol ’25, Gabby Grabush ’23, Callie La Testa ’26, and members of the ensemble perform “Opening for a Princess.”

Princess Winnifred (Dana Thompson ’24) is unable to fall asleep on top of a stack of 20 mattresses.

Zac Moore ’24 and Katherine Schlossnagle ’25, as Sir Harry and Lady Larkin, sing “In a Little While.”

Aeiris Faloni ’23, as Queen Aggravaine, reminds her court of the rules: “Throughout the land no one may wed, ’til Dauntless to the altar’s led.”

Auden Beauvois ’24, as King Sextimus The Silent, uses pantomime to warn others about the Queen.