During a rehearsal break for 'Matilda,' from left, are Caitlin Miller, James Miles and Victoria Alameda.
The Talent Time Players, as it has done since 1950, will stage a production this summer to benefit a local child needing medical treatment.
The show is “Matilda,” a 1996 movie and 2022 musical from a Roald Dahl story. Eight performances are scheduled, July 31-Aug. 9.
According to Victoria Alameda, secretary to The Charles Sellers Foundation executive board, the show has been in the works since January. The foundation sponsors Talent Time.
“Our production team has been getting together since the beginning of the calendar year,” she said at a recent rehearsal. “The selection process for the production team is different year-to-year, but this year we have a lot of regulars. It’s a well-oiled machine. But a lot of times, there are new people on the production team. This year is an exception.”
“Matilda” has more than 40 cast members, ages four to 35. It is being directed by James Miles, a Bloomfield resident. The four-year-old cast member is his daughter, Amelia. Two other daughters are in the cast: Gwen and Leah.
“Directing the show is a pleasure,” Miles said during a break. “But one challenge is having the kids put aside their stage fright and pulling the performance out of them. You can have a thousand great leads, but if your ensemble is garbage, you won’t have a good show.”
Miles has been directing for 20 years and when directing kids, he has one golden rule.
“It’s not talking down to them,” he said. “I treat them all the same, as I would a professional actor.”
The beneficiary this year is Matteo Campoverde, a nine-year-old cousin of a Talent Time member. Matteo, a fourth-grader at Demarest Elementary
School, has leukemia.
“We found out about Matteo on social media,” said Caitlin Miller, the president of the foundation. “They were raising money for him and then I found out he was related to a member. It was meant to be. We pick a beneficiary and announce it at our cabaret in January.”
A grievous injury launched everything.
On the morning of July 17, 1950, Charles Sellers, a recent Bloomfield High School graduate, attempted to board a moving eastbound train at the Osborne Street station in Glen Ridge. He was going to his summer job in Newark. Ordinarily, his sister would drive him to work. But on this day, he was going by train.
Arriving late at the station and with the train slowly departing, Sellers, approaching the train from the track bed, attempted to board it. He managed to grab a railing, but misjudged the speed of the train and was spun off. His right leg landed on the track and was run over by the train. It required amputation at the knee.
Hearing this terrible news, Sellers’ friends met at Washington Street ice cream parlor, their hangout, to commiserate and decide what to do. Flowers were out of the question. This was bigger than flowers.
They determined to create a variety show with the proceeds going to Sellers. The four performances were a big success, raising $4,600. With such results, his friends got the notion to make the show an annual benefit and The Charles Sellers Foundation was created with the Talent Time Players, since 1954, producing a musical annually. Sellers gave $500 that first year to help it along.
In a 2016 interview with this newspaper, Sellers, who died in January of 2024, said that as far as getting started, he thought Talent Time had three strokes of luck.
The first one was the willingness of people to get involved. The second was that the accident happened soon after high school graduation.
“It was only three weeks later,” he said. “A lot of people were still there.”
The third stroke was having BHS English and drama teacher “Tink” Martin around.
“She lived on Montgomery Street,” Seller said. “She and her husband turned their house over as a headquarters.”
Martin, he said, devoted all her time to shepherding and shaping the first Talent Time production.
One reason Talent Time has lasted for so long, Seller said, is that it draws people not just from Bloomfield, but from across north Jersey and other places.
Another reason was its focus on one beneficiary. In 1950, it was himself. Afterwards, it became a search for someone with medical concerns.
“That’s been an intelligent move,” he said.
Seller also said there was the good sense in not having an original production every year.
“That would be a tremendous challenge,” he said.
His view of Talent Time was that people who became involved took away the idea of how they could help others.
“You’d be surprised how many people give me credit,” he said. “I didn’t do anything the first time.”
“Matilda” will be performed at Bloomfield High School, July 31, Aug. 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9, at 7:30 p.m., and Aug. 2 and 9 at 2 p.m.
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