North Crawford Playhouse

10/27/2026

The North Crawford Community Education Foundation will be holding a basket raffle during all five performances of North Crawford Playhouse production of Roald Dahl's "Matilda: The Musical." The NCCEF provides grants for classroom teachers and scholarships for graduating seniors. If any individual or business is interested in providing a basket for the raffle please drop off at either school office the week of November 2nd. You can also contact Bonnie Murphy at 608–3 86–4954 with questions or alternative drop off information.

The foundation has directly provided or facilitated contributions to the playhouse that have made an incredible impact on the quality of our programming. They also provided greatly-needed funding for our educators. Please consider contributing to this important cause!

10/19/2026

Tickets are ON SALE NOW!!! This show is going to a smash!

10/16/2026

Inspired by the twisted genius of Roald Dahl, the Tony Award-winning musical Matilda is a captivating masterpiece that revels in the anarchy of childhood, the power of imagination and the inspiring story of a girl who dreams of a better life.

Packed with high-energy choreography, catchy but moving songs, and an unforgettable story, Matilda is a joyous and unexpected adventure. Children and adults alike will be thrilled and delighted by the story of the special little girl with an extraordinary imagination.

Tickets on sale SOON!

10/15/2026

Here are photos from North Crawford's mock crash, including a few behind-the-scenes shots. Rob Ghormley directed the scene, Brandon Bankes arranged technical elements, and Abigail Jorgensen arranged the injury makeup. Area first responders arranged two wrecked vehicles and all of the necessary equipment for their training event. Viewer discretion advised: we used fake blood and stage injuries during the scene, so don't browse these photos if you are squeamish.

10/08/2026

NCP participants participated in an incredibly moving mock crash simulation with area first-responders. See the write up in the link attached. Well done to all of our students, and a huge THANK YOU to our area first responders!

Local police, fire, and EMS members and North Crawford Playhouse participants collaborated to produce a powerfully moving mock crash simulation last week. Thank you to all of our partnering first responder organizations and student actors for bringing this opportunity to our high school! Follow the link to learn more.

https://www.northcrawford.com/article/3179824

09/30/2026

Summer recap: number THREE! Our final reveal takes us into a mysterious and rarely seen hideaway over the audiences heads where our show-runners delicately coil cables, gently push buttons, and whisper sweet nothings into their headsets: the tech booth!!

Though not a very visible space, this room is critical to effective theatre production and to running nearly every event in the playhouse, and our theatre elves spared no expense! Squeaky, uneven flooring? Fixed! Carpet to quiet the space? Installed! New shelving and cable storage? Behold the organizational splendor! We also replaced the old tables with countertops for better work surfaces. Oooh, how fancy!!

And another project that caused no small amount of consternation over the years: two enormous water lines that our crew have had to crawl over to access the consoles were re-routed by our incredible volunteer! Farewell, plumbing obstacle course! You will not be missed.

A quieter, more organized, more useful home for the crew behind the curtain.. er.. behind the audience! Huzzah!

Check out the before and after pics. They are something!!

Thank you especially to Nate Bankes and Brent Bankes for their contributions to this project. We appreciate you!

09/24/2026

Summer recap: number TWO! That's right, there is more! With support from our amazing friends at Monkey Wrench Productions, our theatre elves designed and installed an extraordinary sound playback and reinforcement system (cue gasps of delight!). The system features QSC LA108 line-arrays, an Allen & Heath SQ5 audio console, Shure handheld wireless mics, a JBL powered subwoofer, and tablet-based remote control. Holy cats!

Gone are the days of borrowed, broken, barely-working equipment that took ages to set up and was prone to failure. Huzzah! What's more, the new system has been a scientific adventure with our tech students, as we calculated audio delays for speaker alignment, applied high/low-pass filters and equalization parameters, ran frequency tests for mics, and much more. These experiences with industry-standard equipment wouldn't be possible without such a system.

We have also invested in significantly improved projection equipment for the theatre and hope to have that fully operational in the coming months.

We would like to thank the North Crawford Community Education Foundation for their enormous support in making these endeavors possible. We could not do it without the foundation! We also want to thank Rob Sailer, Amanda Killeen, Derrik Junker, and Eric Hady for provided funding to complete this project. You folks are the best!

09/16/2026

Summer recap! The theatre elves accomplished not one... not two... but THREE major playhouse projects over the break! Behold the first: new performance balconies!!

Long-time viewers will remember the old balconies which were removed last summer during our stage deck replacement. They are back again in great form! These finely crafted balconies could carry the weight of a circus elephant, are quiet under the tappiest tap-dancers, and feature wildly fashionable cable railings. Say it with me: Oooohhh! Ahhhh!!! We also lowered the height of the upper balcony section for a safer and more useful acting space and utilized recycled materials for 50% of the project. Holy cats!

Let's give a huge shoutout to all of the students who helped us and to Mr. Ghormley and Mr. Bankes for providing their dashing wit, incredible charm, and copious free labor. Huzzah!

08/03/2026

Christmas in July! Last week, the playhouse received shipment of a new audio console, speakers, and associated equipment for a long-overdue sound system upgrade. Over the next couple of weeks this system will be installed and tuned to be ready for school programming in September. Though we are known for our awesome theatre program, the playhouse also provides technical support and A/V hardware for concerts, recitals, talent shows, assemblies, guest presenters, prom, homecoming, graduation, and much more. These systems will benefit our entire school district with high quality sound playback. Phase one of the project includes a new console, speakers, and two handheld microphones. Phase two of the project will include updated system wiring, stage-boxes, and sound reinforcement options. This project was generously sponsored by grant funds through the North Crawford Excellence in Education Fund. We are grateful for their support!

08/02/2026

Theatre curtains don't last forever. Curtains that are damaged or past their safely-usable life are removed from service and too-often thrown away, but not at NCP! Time for our makers to shine! These special creations were sewn by our awesome volunteer Brent Bankes on our new Juki industrial sewing machine. Each one is made from recycled velour curtain material from the North Crawford Playhouse stage. They are wildly stylish and carrying one immediately bestows the owner with a serious sense of panache! Don't believe me? Buy one and find out! A very limited stock of tote bags are still available for purchase. Please send us a message if you are interested. Edit to add: We are asking $50 for the bags. As of this writing only four are left!