Matilda is not an easy musical to stage. During the performance actors are launched into space, chalk floats and cake needs to disappear in seconds.

But Bermudian theatre majors, Sanzia Pearman and Myah Bridgewater, are up to the challenge.

Their summer camp Actin’ Up, will be putting on Matilda at The Berkeley Institute on Friday evening.

“This is our second camp,” said Ms Pearman, who is in her junior year at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. “Last year we put on Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Creating the world of Matilda has been a lot harder. It has a lot of theatre magic in it, and the magnitude of it is much greater.”

Ms Bridgewater said there is also a lot more intricacy involved in the acting and the characters. "The subject matter is also more deep,“ she said.

The musical, originally a book by British writer Roald Dahl, is about Matilda Wormwood, a little girl with an exceptional intellect, and magical powers.

Her neglectful parents, the Wormwoods, send her to a school with an abusive headteacher, Agatha Trunchbull.

As Matilda discovers her own power, she is determined to help her teacher, Miss Honey get out from under the control of Ms Trunchbull.

Campers went through a two-day audition process to determine casting.

“Before camp began we sent out cuts of songs for the campers to review before beginning their journey at Actin' Up!” Ms Bridgewater said. “The audition process had three stages including acting, singing and dancing so each camper had a chance to shine in whatever their strength was.”

They tried to make the audition process as stress-free and fun as possible, but the organisers also wanted to show the children what a real audition was like.

Alexa Correia, 11, was chosen for the part of Matilda. “It is very fun being Matilda,” Alexa said. “I watched the movie when it came out on Netflix.”

Niyah Burrows, 12, plays Miss Honey.

“It gets a little bit nerve-racking because I do not know all of my lines yet,” she said. “I play Miss Honey. All of the characters in the play are my favourite, except for Ms Trunchbull, of course.”

Cantankerous principal Ms Trunchbull, is played by 20-year-old Nekoda Bascome, a camp counsellor.

“It is a lot of fun playing Ms Trunchbull,” he said. He joked: “I feel like that is my attitude so it is very easy for me.”

It was his first time playing a female role, but said it was not difficult, because the character is very masculine anyway.

He disagreed that she was abusive.

“I would call her attitude and demeanour more aggressive and vulgar,” he said. “Also, I feel that this role is easy to get into character for because I believe I have the very big personality and dramatic quality required to get into character.”

Outside of camp, Mr Bascome is a singer, who has performed at events such as The Inspirational Gospel Concert.

Ms Pearman explained the reasoning behind picking a male for the part.

“We needed someone larger than the kids to play the role of Ms Trunchbull,” Ms Pearman said. “He has theatre experience as well and brings that professionalism to the stage.”

Matilda is a very physical with lots of vigorous movement.

Angel O’Loughlin, 14, who plays Matilda’s mother, Mrs Wormwood, found it challenging to sing and dance at the same time.

Ms Pearman and Ms Bridgewater have been working on the campers’ physical fitness. She has had them running around the camp space while they sing, and also planking.

“We have tried to teach them with all the techniques that we ourselves have been taught with,” she said. “Sometimes the parents wonder why they are so tired when they come home after camp.”

The camp founders said this production of Matilda has been a long time coming.

“We have known this would be this year’s show since January,” Ms Bridgewater said.

A sophomore at the University of Michigan, Ms Bridgewater helps the campers with their acting, while Ms Pearman works on the dance side of things.

“It helped that my friend was in the Matilda musical on Broadway,” Ms Pearman said. “He explained that the choreographic style is called hacking. With hacking there are a lot of sharp movements, which is very different than a lot of these girls might learn in dance class.”

Ms Pearman and Ms Bridgewater have been friends for years, and, as children, attended the same overseas theatre summer camps and intensives. Eventually, they went to the same theatre boarding school together.

“I was more dance and theatre, and Myah was more theatre,” Ms Pearman said.

Now they love working with children who have the same hunger for theatre that they once had. Their dream is to one day run a theatre school or drama company for young people.

“We want to bring to Bermuda, the same calibre of theatre education that we got,” Ms Bridgewater said. “We both went to boarding school for theatre and we are studying theatre now at the college level. To bring home that professionalism is so important to us, because we did not see it when we were growing up.”

They wanted to give creatives a space to feel loved and appreciated.

They believe the arts are neglected in Bermuda.

“We want to show the campers that there can be a future in the arts,” Ms Bridgewater said. “I feel like so many times in Bermuda we are told to go into international business, or sports or insurance.

“There are so many different types of jobs in theatre, not just on stage, but also in the booth doing sound and lights. There is also, marketing, and the business side of things.”

The set for Matilda is surprisingly elaborate for a summer camp production. An iron school gate is a focal point in the show.

Local company Overnight Construction put it together, and Ms Pearman spray painted it. Campers also made Scrabble pieces to decorate the set.

“That was a lot of fun,” Ms Pearman said.

Students in Actin’ Up are ages nine to 16, and come from schools across the island.

The camp ends on Friday, but the founders hope to do it again next year, and maybe include a tech arena for students who are more interesting in the design elements of theatre.

The show runs tomorrow in the Berkeley Institute Cafetorium in Pembroke at 6pm. Tickets are $20 and on sale today and tomorrow at The Berkeley Institute from 8.30am to 9.30am and 3.30pm to 5.30pm. Snacks will be sold at the show.