Bayou Theater’s first fully staged production in over 20 years to open in April

For the first time in over 20 years, the University of Houston–Clear Lake (UHCL) Bayou Theater is producing a fully staged musical, “Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka” directed by Alex Malone, managing director of the department of theater and cultural arts, in collaboration with the Bay Area Houston Ballet and Theater (BAHBT) will provide choreography and instrumental accompaniment.

“Willy Wonka” is based on the classic children’s book “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl and influenced by the 1971 film starring Gene Wilder. This musical performance follows a world-famous chocolatier looking for the next visionary to take over his candy empire at the Wonka factory. When 11-year-old Charlie Bucket wins a chance to visit Wonka’s factory along with four other lucky children, the adventure begins to unfold.

The UHCL department of Theater and Cultural Arts, headed by Malone, searched for the best local talent to fill these roles. Auditions for the performance yielded the casting of one UHCL staff member, one alumna, one current UHCL student, and members of the local community.

Auditions were held from Jan.11-13 and were open to the local Houston community. Chastity Smith, alumna, graduated from UHCL the summer of 2018 with a master’s in healthcare administration/business administration and will be a member of the chorus for the production. Smith said she only heard about the auditions for the show by coincidence.

“I graduated last year, but still receive emails,” Smith said. “I heard about the auditions through the email.”

McCade Fletcher, business marketing and management major, plays the role of Mr. Salt, Veruca’s father. This is Fletcher’s first time being involved with the theater department.

“I heard about auditions through the UHCL website, and set up an appointment to audition there,” Fletcher said.

Malone said that one of the challenges in staging a full production is working with the demographics of the student population.

“I came from a big university where everyone lived on campus to one with just four buildings, nobody lives on campus and classes are from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.,” Malone said.

Now that the play has been cast and rehearsals are underway, Malone is working on generating publicity for the play and theater. When talking about marketing methods that the theater is trying to use in order to get more interest from students, staff and faculty from the school participating in the program and coming back to see the shows, Malone had mentioned emails, Facebook, digital billboards and other methods that they are going to try, but he still sees a significant challenge.

“What can I do marketing-wise, program wise, to get people to come back on campus or come out the first time,” Malone said. “Once people leave campus, and because not a lot of people live on campus, it becomes difficult for them to come back.”

Malone is not the only one invested in the success of “Willy Wonka” and the theater program at UHCL. Tracy Rider, advisor in the Human Sciences and Humanities (HSH) College, may be new to the advising staff of HSH, but she’s far from new to the UHCL campus. A proud alumna of the final class of UHCL’s fabled Department of Theater Arts–Drama, class of 1992, Rider hopes for a revival of the program.

“This school had a great program, if you were planning to be a theater teacher,” Rider said. “So many of the community schools around here, the high schools and community colleges, had and continue to have great drama programs. A lot of those students leave their schools wanting to emulate the teachers that had such strong and positive influences on them. This was a great program to enter into, for that.”

Rider had previously been working as an advisor at the University of Houston (UH) main campus and had only transferred to UHCL this semester – just in time to receive the emails sent out in early January announcing auditions for “Willy Wonka.” She will be playing Claire Gloop, the mother of gluttonous Augustus Gloop.

“I think this production of ‘Willy Wonka’ can have a great deal of impact,” Rider said. “Alex Malone has done a great job creating a rental venue. This will show everyone that we can put on a full production, too. This is the first step and it is a great opportunity.

Fellow alumna Chastity Smith said she would definitely be interested in auditioning for any possible future productions put on by the Bayou Theater.

“I can’t wait to hear about more plays,” Smith said. “It’s been so long since the school has done something like this. When I got an email, I was like ‘Is this for real?’”

Malone is confident that this performance will surpass expectations and is excited that the performance will bring not only the school together but also the community.

The show will have eight performances over two weekends and will run from April 4–7 and April 11–14. Tickets are on sale now and cost $32 for adults and $20 for students for premium seating, and $24 for adults and $13 for students for standard seating. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.uhcl.edu.

CORRECTION: 2/17/19 – Roald Dahl’s name has been corrected as it was previously misspelled as “Ronald Dahl” in the second paragraph.