Twenty-plus mattresses high: Jefferson’s “Once Upon a Mattress” stacks up Spotlight honors
Jefferson Theatre Company’s spring production of “Once Upon a Mattress” received 27 honors from Spotlight Education, a program of Hennepin Theatre Trust. The show is a retelling of ‘The Princess and the Pea’ and featured more than 80 Jefferson students.
Amelia Busse and Olivia Heisel earned outstanding performance honors for their leading roles as Queen Aggravin and Winnifred, respectively. Claire Kraynick, Juliet Klapak, Gabrielle Feind, Knox Mitchell, and Delilah Dudziak earned outstanding technical leadership honors. The show also received outstanding honors in the categories of overall technical production, costume crew, run crew, overall technical team, sound crew, and light crew.
Honorable mentions were awarded to Jonas Dammen in their leading role as Prince Dauntless; Justin Kramer (King Sextimus), Aedan Bala (Sir Harry) and Holleigh Stockton (Jester) for their supporting roles, and Owen Russell for technical leadership as a board operator. The show received honorable mentions in the categories of achievement in musical theatre, overall performance, ensemble performance, ensemble acting performance, ensemble vocal performance, ensemble dance performance, and student orchestra.
Evaluator shout-out recognition was given to individuals Christopher Hoffhines and Marleigh Plekkenpol.
Spotlight Education is active in more than 100 high schools throughout Minnesota and works to enhance the arts through production assessments, workshops and access to quality theater education.