The nonprofit 2nd Star Productions is an all-volunteer run community theater that performs out of the Bowie Playhouse in Whitemarsh Park, producing three or four plays a year. Currently they are performing the musical Matilda, which is proving a sell-out success, and one replete with Greenbelt connections, including the actors, musicians and producers.
Katie Riegel, 2nd Star’s interim president and marketing director, is a graduate of Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Her co-producer, Laura Fisher, grew up in Greenbelt. Fisher
previously stage-managed at several venues, including Greenbelt Arts Center (GAC), with which she also had numerous roles on-stage and off. This performance of Matilda marks her first time as a producer.
On stage, longtime Greenbelt resident Heather Norden and her son, Archibald Will Wertz, a current third-grade student at Greenbelt Elementary, perform together. Norden is a charming Mrs. Phelps, the librarian stunned by Matilda’s intelligence and captivated by her storytelling. She is the rare adult who offers her sanctuary and books at the library, both an escape from her terrible homelife. The young Wertz makes his debut with 2nd Star Productions as Eric, a classmate of Matilda’s navigating the start of school and the treacherous headmistress Trunchbull alongside her. This is Wertz’s second time performing outside of Creative Kids Camp (one of the summer camps offered through Greenbelt Recreation). There he’s had the opportunity to perform in Chris Cherry’s original musicals Summer Circus and Hidden Lands alongside other creative Greenbelt children.
Age-Appropriate Actors
“It’s the first version done in this area using age-appropriate actors (the cast ranges from age 8 to over 50),” said Norden. The children-actors are amazing, from the delivery of lines to their expressions, to the singing and dancing. After the School Song in Act One, in which the kids ensemble and teen ensemble take the stage together, my sixth grader leaned over and whispered, “That was amazing.” The star role of Matilda was played by a young but polished Tabitha Popernack (alternately played by Grace Gavin). Popernack brings poise and talent to her performance. This included several impressive solos, particularly in the fun Naughty, which she delivers beautifully as she begins to stand up for herself. “Families, in particular, are loving it,” Riegel told the News Review.
It’s Norden’s first time returning to the stage in over 20 years. She was very involved with theater through high school at Roosevelt and at the Greenbelt Arts Center, “It’s where I met my best friends and found a source of joy, creativity and self-esteem,” she recalls. However, other demands took precedence when she went to college, then grad school and then became a mother. Then her son Will fell in love with acting last summer and when she heard Matilda was going to be casting with 2nd Star, “it seemed like the perfect opportunity – something we could try out for together and help empower each other to try,” Norden explains. The mother-son pair started voice lessons together and bonded as they re-read Roald Dahl’s novel and rewatched the movie. “It became a special thing together,” she says.
Greenbelt (Re)Connections
It was only as she prepared for the audition that she realized two of her close high school friends, co-producers Fisher and Riegel, were involved (they had no role in castings). She first met Fisher on the first day of 9th grade in drama class. The pair bonded over all their work on stage and in productions. It was Fisher who introduced Norden to productions at GAC. The pair would meet Riegel, a year younger, among the stage crew at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) the following year.
After beginning the role of Mrs. Phelps, Norden discovered the assistant stage manager was Sally Dodson, a Greenbelter she’d met at the Community Church years ago, and that her good friend Susan Breon, also of Greenbelt, was in the pit orchestra playing the keyboard. The son of another friend from high school was also among the cast. “It’s been an incredible reunion experience to engage with the theater again, to do it with my son and to do it with some of my very favorite people from my high school experience at ERHS,” shared Norden.
A Sell-Out Success
“Matilda has been our most popular show since returning to the theater after our long shutdown period due to Covid,” said Riegel. The theater shut down with the rest of the world in March 2020 and reopened in August 2022, she explained. “We had one other sell-out show like this last season, which was our production of Crowns. But over 2,000 people have seen Matilda, which is more than any of our shows since we re-opened.” Although tickets are sold out for the remaining shows, some walk-up tickets may be available at the box office on the day of the show. The final three performances will take place this weekend. Other performances for 2nd Star Productions this season will include Urinetown, opening in February, and Dreamgirls, which opens May 31, 2024.
