Sophomore Elise Edmonson is very involved in the Millbrook community, participating in activities such as Millbrook Executive Board, Key Club, Best Buds, and Young Life. Most notable is her role in the Millbrook theater. Elise began acting in 2013, she says, “I went to New York and saw Newsies and Matilda on Broadway and wanted to be just like the actors I saw.” This trip sparked her interest in the acting field. Elise plans to continue her theater career at Millbrook but is unsure about what to do with theater post-graduation: “I love it dearly, and if I could make a career out of it I would.”

  Elise was a part of Millbrook’s fall play Night Must Fall in October, where she played Ms. Bramson. She, along with the rest of the theater department, is currently working on the upcoming spring musical, Matilda. In the musical, Elise plays Amanda, one of Matilda’s classmates. The preparation and rehearsals currently take place after school. Elise says, “Our rehearsals are split into three types at the moment: singing, acting, and dance. Right now, we are mainly focusing on specific parts of the script, but pretty soon, we will start putting them together to do full run-throughs, which is where we will practice the show from beginning to end.” The spring musical will open on Thursday, March 31st and the last performance will be Saturday, April 2nd at 9:00 pm. 

  When asked about her favorite part of participating in Millbrook Theater, she says, “I love how you can meet so many different people through theater! It is fun to get to know people who you probably would not have met otherwise since we all hang out with different people.” Elise enjoys the community aspect of theater because it makes it easier to meet new people who have a common interest. Her advice to someone just getting started in theater is to “have an open mind!” She says, “Theater means getting out of your comfort zone, and sometimes it will feel weird pretending to be someone so different from yourself.” Be sure to catch Elise and many others in Matilda coming to Millbrook in late March until early April!