Pretty sweet: Valley Performing Arts celebrates golden anniversary

What you need to know:

• Valley Performing Arts in Wasilla is celebrating its 50th anniversary by staging “Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka,” a large-scale community production featuring more than 100 local volunteers.
• Beyond entertainment, VPA’s mission focuses on community involvement and youth development, including programs that build confidence and encourage participation in the arts.  
• The theater’s shows highlight the collaborative spirit of community theater, bringing together residents of all ages and backgrounds, with organizers emphasizing the strong sense of connection and “family” formed during production. 

• Short on time but need the local news scoop? Get free weekly news in your inbox for Mat-Su, from Mat-Su.

WASILLA – Valley Performing Arts has brought worlds of pure imagination to Mat-Su audiences for half a century. So how is the Wasilla-based community theater company celebrating its golden anniversary?

They’ve got a golden ticket.

Over the next two weekends, VPA will stage the crowd-pleasing musical “Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka,” a faithful adaptation of the classic 1971 Gene Wilder film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” at the Glenn Massay Theater in Palmer.

“You’ll see Oompa-Loompas,” promised co-director Chrissy Bentti.

But while ticketholders can expect plenty of deliciously diabolical misadventures during Charlie Bucket’s tour of the Wonka candy factory with his grandpa Joe, it’s what goes on behind the chocolate fountain that’s truly sweet.

That’s where more than 100 Mat-Su residents — from teachers and telecommunications workers, to musicians, middle schoolers, and mothers — have teamed up over the past couple of months to produce the show, an experience everyone involved agreed is what makes community theater special.

“You just find family,” said Bentti, a stay-at-home mother directing her first production after acting in several prior VPA shows.

Bentti’s co-director, Kai West, called the cast and crew “a three-month family” that “will never exist in the same way again.”

“There are people here I would never meet in my regular life,” said West, an elementary school music teacher who also serves as VPA’s artistic director. “And I get to spend this time with them.”

It takes an entire community to stage a show as elaborate as “Willy Wonka.” West and Bentti said that in addition to a cast of more than 50 actors, including about 20 children, the all-volunteer production includes an orchestra and a crew of stagehands and skilled laborers who handle everything from sound and lighting to costume and set design.

Bentti said she never fully grasped the enormous scale of a production like “Willy Wonka” until she began directing.

“It’s definitely been eye-opening in a lot of good ways. Just the magnitude of what a production entails, especially a musical. We have a cast of 53, plus crew, plus the orchestra, and getting that all together is a lot,” she said. “And then the budgeting and figuring that all out, and making sure that everybody’s staying on track — the costumes, the set pieces, props — there are so many things that you just don’t know when you’re an actor.”

VPA Executive Director Jenna Worley said the organization’s primary mission throughout its 50 years has been to foster the kind of broad community participation seen behind the scenes of the season finale.

“Our mission is just to promote community participation in live theater,” Worley said. “Not only for entertainment, but also getting people involved in the community.”

VPA stages a half-dozen shows each season, with most performances held at the Machetanz Theater, a 170-seat venue in Wasilla. Worley said virtually everyone involved with the theater, aside from paid office staff, is a volunteer. To stay afloat, VPA relies on ticket sales, donations, grants, and in-kind support provided by local businesses.

“That’s a big help,” she said.

VPA was founded in 1976 by volunteers “committed to providing quality live theater productions to the local community,” according to a brief history on the group’s website. The theater was located in the old log Colony Church at the Alaska State Fairgrounds before moving in 1996 to its current location on Swanson Avenue in Wasilla. Today, more than 11,000 tickets are sold each season.

VPA also hosts a summer program in which children are immersed in a two-week crash course in live theater and perform a play at the end. Worley said the popular program can have an enormous impact on participants’ lives.

“I call it a confidence-building program because some kids are so shy the first day they’re scared to even get on stage, and by the end of the second week, they’re in a costume and talking to the audience. It’s amazing.”

One of the more unique aspects of the upcoming “Willy Wonka” show is its youthful cast, which includes both featured performers with solos and speaking roles, as well as a contingent of children ages roughly 7 to 10 who play Wonka’s Oompa-Loompas, a crew of diminutive helpers who live and work in the chocolate factory.

Having a large number of children in the cast brings an “awesome, infectious” energy to the production, West said.

“They’ll know everybody’s lines and choreography before the adults. Their brains are sponges,” she said.

Kadence Farnsworth, 13, and Annie Smith, 11, play the roles of Veruca Salt and Violet Beauregarde, a pair of spoiled girls who tour the chocolate factory alongside Charlie. When asked about their favorite part of performing in the musical, the girls performed an impromptu duet.

“Everything!” they shouted in harmony.

Both girls are avid singers who said they got involved with the musical after auditioning at the urging of their vocal coaches. Memorizing their songs and lines was the easy part, both agreed.

“It’s not hard when you really like it,” Smith said.

Brandon Linderman plays Veruca Salt’s father. A recruiter for the U.S. Army, Linderman said he got involved with VPA after transferring to Alaska with his family and looking for something to do with his children.

“It’s a huge way to get involved with the community,” said Linderman, whose wife grew up in Mat-Su.

Benjamin Marvin agreed. A telecommunications technician, Marvin — who portrays Grandpa Joe — said he also got into performing through his children’s involvement with VPA. Now in his third VPA production, Marvin said he got hooked on acting mainly because of the connections formed with the cast and crew.

“It’s the people,” he said. “We just have a good time.”

Worley, VPA’s executive director, encouraged anyone interested in live theater to consider joining the theater by auditioning, volunteering, or simply buying a ticket.

“Whether you want to be involved on stage or just in the audience, community theater is a place for everyone.”

“Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka” runs March 27-29 and April 2-5 at the Glenn Massay Theater in Palmer. Shows are at 7 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays, with an additional 2 p.m. show March 28. Tickets are $30 for general admission or $27 for military members, seniors, and students. For more information, visit vpaalaska.org.

Matt Tunseth is a freelance writer from Southcentral Alaska. Write to him at matthew.tunseth@gmail.com