BY JADE WILCOX

On October 27 and 29, Wadsworth Middle School put on MTI’s production “Broadway Junior Revue: Pure Imagination.” This musical consisted of selections from famous junior musicals such as Willy Wonka Jr. and Elf Jr. The actors and actresses sang and danced their way through a successful musical season.

Reese McQuaid and Felix Patterson each especially enjoy the theater. They played parts in the WMS shows last year as seventh graders and now in this year’s musical production as eighth graders.

McQuaid earned multiple roles in the show, including “Belle” in “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Narrator” in “Hola Lola.”

Here McQuaid is performing as both Belle and the Narrator. She wears the “Belle” dress from the Game of Tiaras performance, on the left, and wore her own outfit during “Hola, Lola” on the right. Photos by Jade Wilcox.

“I wanted to be in the production, because it gave me the chance to, not only put on a show, but also to gain experience for future shows and making friends,” McQuaid said. “I would love to be in more productions at the high school and in the future.”

Patterson, another skilled performer, received multiple characters in the production as well, playing “Buddy the Elf” in “Sparklejollytwinklejingley” and one of the rebelling students in Matilda’s “Revolting Children,” to name a few.

Felix Patterson is performing in his “Buddy the Elf” costume, on the right, during the song “Sparklejollytwinklejingley,” and performing as a student from “Matilda” in “Revolting Children.” The costume flexibility allowed Patterson to perform each song as fluently as the characters in the productions. Photos by Jade Wilcox.

“I wanted to be part of the production to hang out with friends while also participating in an activity I love,” Patterson said. “It was a pleasure to be a part of the show, and [I] would gladly do it again.”

Members of the Wadsworth High School technical crew helped the middle schoolers produced their show. Anna Wallace, a WHS junior, helped run microphones and sound for the younger grades.

“[When fixing their microphones] I just tell them it magically got fixed,” Wallace said. This phrase fits with the “magical” and “imagination” theme relatively well, and if something had gone wrong, the middle schoolers worked around the problem as best as they could.

“Pure Imagination” yet again helped spread the young talents of WMS towards the high school, filling the WHS Performing Arts Center with both actors and audience members.