The Hundred Dresses
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Family Weekend Performance Dates: September 25 & October 1, 2022
School Day Matinee Dates: September 27-30, 2022
Audition Dates: August 6-7, 2022
Wanda Petronski’s new classmates think she has a funny name and when they tease her for wearing the same blue dress to school every day, she claims to have a closet full of one hundred dresses at home, all lined up. Even Maddie Reeves, who doesn’t have much more than one dress herself, goes along with the game even though she knows it’s cruel. Can they learn to find the bravery to stand up for what they know is right – even if it means standing alone?
By Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills
Based on the book by Eleanor Estes
Best enjoyed by ages 8 and up
Location: The LCT Learning Stage
Length of Show: Approximately 1 hour long
Auditions for The Hundred Dresses will take place August 6-7, 2022 and are open to anyone ages 9-18! Learn more on our Auditions page.
Family Weekend Performance Info
Sunday, September 25 – 2:00pm & 6:00pm
Saturday, October 1 – 2:00pm & 7:00pm* (*the 7:00pm show is Pay What You Will)
Purchase Single Tickets Purchase a Membership
*To reserve Pay What You Will tickets in advance of a show, call our Box Office at 859.254.4546 x245
School Day Matinee Info
Tuesday-Friday, September 27-30
10:00am & 11:45am
The Hundred Dresses is recommended for – 3rd-8th grade
Curricular Connections – Immigration, Bullying and Kindness, Compare and Contrast, Imagination
Things to Know Before the Show
About LCT's The Learning Stage Series
The Learning Stage Series debuted in our 2015-2016 season as a way to give more performance opportunities to young artists. Shows in this series are cast entirely with young performers ages 9-18 and designed by high school students with mentorship from LCT's Education Department staff. Productions take place in our Learning Stage, a small 105-seat theatre on our second floor. Seating is stadium-style in a black box type setting where the actors are close to the audience. Tickets are sold general admission so there is no assigned seating.
About The Hundred Dresses
The Hundred Dresses is a short adaptation of the well-known Newbery Honor winning story of the same name by Eleanor Estes. Our characters live in the United States in 1938, the time of the Great Depression. Having prior knowledge of the Great Depression may be helpful for the context of the show.
This story is a great way to start conversations about...
the issues young people deal with every day. The Hundred Dresses shows what it is like to be bullied, to be a bully, and even a bystander. This show also provides a great opportunity to talk to your family about the repercussions of our actions and the outcomes that may affect the rest of a young person's life. This may be a good chance for your to talk to your young person about the signs and forms of bullying as well as being able to move from being a bystander to being a "Rescuer" before a situation escalates.
We love this story because...
it's a relection of true life and teaches us how important it is to be kind to everyone. This story deals with hard topics such as prejudice and classism, but tells it through the eyes of young people as they learn how to be better friends and people. This story is one that has stood the test of time and has done so since 1954 when it was first published.
Sound
More information about sound will be available once this production goes into Technical Rehearsals the week of September 19.
Lighting
More information about lighting will be available once this production goes into Technical Rehearsals the week of September 19.
Intensity
Bullying is an over-arching theme throughout the play. Wanda Petronski is bullied by her classmates because they find her accent and name different. When Wanda tells her new classmates that she has one hundred dresses at home (even though they only ever see her wearing the same worn dress and shoes), they tease her mercilessly. Peggy, Cecile, and Maddie even create a game called the Dress Game where they mockingly ask Wanda about her dresses at home. We see Maddie question her and her friends' actions, but she doesn't stand up to Peggy and the bullying continues, making Maddie a bystander -- someone who does not stand up for others when bullying behavior occurs. This ultimately leads to Wanda dropping out of the school.
Action
This is a story with emotional intensity, not physical intensity. There are no scenes with stage combat or intense action, just one moment with a small "jump scare" when Maddie, Cecile, and Peggy visit Boggins Heights and don't see Old Man Svenson approaching them to say hello.
Language
Wanda Petronski is a young girl who emigrated to the United States from Poland with her father. This is quite an adjustment for a young girl and even more of an adjustment for someone whose first language isn't English. At one point in the story, a boy makes fun of her name saying it sounds like a "Polish Sausage" and makes fun of her hand-me-down appearance. In a letter letting Wanda's class know that she will not be back, Wanda's father says they were called "Pollacks," a racial slur for a Polish person. It is clear from the context of the story that the people saying these things were wrong.