From the Wings: Don’t say his name three times
Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 30, 2026
This week, 7th Street Kids are performing their second show of the summer – Beetlejuice JR. It’s a production with the high-energy of The SpongeBob Musical and the pratfalls and creative props of Kong’s Night Out.
Which means, just as with Imagine A Dragon, anyone who attends a performance will leave the theater grinning and raving at the talents of Grays Harbor’s youth. And if some of the names and faces of the performers and team members look familiar, that’s because they were also in Once Upon a Mattress, The SpongeBob Musical and Matilda The Musical.
And just as with The SpongeBob Musical, having already seen the Beetlejuice movies isn’t a requirement to enjoy the play.
“A lot of the characters and stuff are the same, but literally the first line Beetlejuice has is, ‘This is such a bold departure from the original source material,’” said Natalee Beavers, who is one of two assistant directors.
While chatting with Jonica Beatie, the vocal music director for Beetlejuice JR., she shared that what sets 7th Street Kids apart from other educational theater organizations is a full staff who teaches all the ins and outs of theater. Many staff are well-known within the Grays Harbor theater scene while others are building their portfolio of skills: And all are helping the kids develop their love for theater.
The teams were:
Beetlejuice JR TeamKyle Sholinder – Drama Director
David Bennett – Assistant Producer
Jonica Beatie – Vocal Music Director
Maija Nordin – Choreographer
Natalee Beavers – Assistant Director
Justyce Brook – Assistant Director
AJ Cooper – Education Coordinator
Angel Howard – Stage Manager
Derek Peterson – Sound Engineer
David Workman – Lighting Design
Imagine A Dragon TeamTaylor Jones – Drama Director
David Bennett – Assistant Producer
Alexa Amarok – Vocal Music Director
Ross McCobb – Choreographer
Eddie Smith – Assistant Director
Matthew Roland – Assistant Director
AJ Cooper – Education Coordinator
Angel Howard – Stage Manager
Derek Peterson – Sound Engineer
David Workman – Lighting Design
Last Friday, The Daily World chatted with Beavers, Vocal Music Director Jonica Beatie, Macie Leach (Delia Schlimmer), Monroe Hancock (Maxie Dean), Cason Braaten (Charles Deetz)and Drama Director Kyle Sholinder about the behind-the-scenes work required to produce Beetlejuice and to learn why they chose to spend part of their summer vacation studying theater.
What follows is our conversation edited for length and clarity.
The Daily World: Natalee, how long have you been involved with 7th Street Kids?
Natalee Beavers (Assistant Director): This is my first year as an assistant directing, but I’ve been involved in the program for a few years doing spotlights and backstage, all sorts of stuff.
TDW: Did you join the program as a kid?
NB: I didn’t actually, but I love the program so much and that’s why I’m so happy I get to work with it now.
TDW: How did you find 7th Street Kids?
NB: I moved to Aberdeen and am doing theater at Grays Harbor College. I heard about the program and it sounded super awesome. It’s so cool that these kids get this awesome opportunity to experience what it’s like to be in a show and audition, all of these things that I never had when I was growing up in a small town.
TDW: How have you enjoyed the role of assistant director?
NB: Getting to see where these kids start and how much they grow and learn, it’s super awesome to see. Every day I come in and I’m like, ‘Gosh, these kids are awesome and they make me laugh.’ I’m so proud of them.
Mostly I help the kids with basic performance stuff, like projection or overall stage presence. A lot of the creative stuff is more on Kyle [Sholinder]. He makes a lot of those creative decisions, but my job is basically to help him bring those creative decisions to life and make them better.
TDW: How did you become interested in theater?
NB: I started in high school; it’s just always something I really love to do. Even before I knew what theater was, I wanted to be a part of it. I just knew I wanted to perform. I started out in high school and then I wound up getting a role at the college and then I’ve just kept doing it ever since.
TDW: How valuable is it to have community support, both financially and through volunteers, to make these productions happen?
NB: Coming here and seeing the community support that theater has is something I’ve never seen before in any other place I’ve lived — that’s such an awesome and valuable thing.
Theater teaches so many good skills, like communication and confidence and performance. These are all things that I wish I had when I was growing up and I’m really happy I get to be part of introducing that to these kids.
TDW: Why should people come and see the performance next weekend?
NB: You get to support these awesome kids and all the work that they’ve been doing, but also it is such a joy to watch. Bring the whole family — everyone’s going to have something that they love about this show.
TDW: Jonica, how long have you been involved with 7th Street Kids then?
Jonica Beatie (Vocal Music Director): This is my second summer working for them. I actually am a Tacoma local, so I come up from Tacoma three days a week.
TDW: Of the theater opportunities available in Tacoma, how does 7th Street Kids compare?
JB: It’s so community oriented and out here in the smaller towns there’s so much support from the community. Seeing the way that they show up and support the kids and provide such high-quality education is really exciting.
TDW: When you say high-quality education, what does that mean when teaching kids about theater?
JB: I’ve worked at a couple other studios and the fact that there is a true full staff here to focus on the different aspects is something that’s really special. Often when you have a full staff, it costs a really high amount of money for kids to participate. And this is so open to everyone, even though there is a true full staff.
The kids get a music director, they have a director, a choreographer, they have a stage manager. Other studios that are offering something similar may get two people who are trying to make everything happen. And then also four hours a day, all week, because there are other studios who will do like two-hour rehearsals twice a week.
TDW: As musical director, what are all the different hats you balance then?
JB: Mostly just teaching the vocals. Because we use recorded music, I don’t have to worry about a peer orchestra. Then during the rehearsal process, I am the sound person as well, but once we get to dress rehearsals on Sunday, it gets passed over to the booth.
TDW: What notes do you give the kids during rehearsals?
JB: Most of them who are leads come in knowing their music, but the rest of them it’s from scratch. So making sure that they know what everything needs to sound like. This one in particular has been pretty tricky because it’s got a lot of parts and it’s very rhythmic. Getting all of these seven and eight year olds to do all that tends to be the trickiest part of it all.
TDW: Kyle, how did you manage to perform as Patrick in SpongeBob and direct Beetlejuice?
Kyle Sholinder (Drama Director): It’s funny because it was busy, don’t get me wrong, but ironically, I’m a teacher and a coach during the school year, so I’m technically doing less hours. Right now I do few hours in the morning and I do few hours in the afternoon.
The real killer has been that I was getting done with SpongeBob at 10 p.m., and then I had to be here by 9 a.m., and so it was really the sleep that’s the problem.
TDW: As the choir teacher at Aberdeen High School, and with a number of the performers having been in Once Upon a Mattress, what’s it like seeing them in a different production outside of school?
KS: I’ve worked with a lot of these kids in a lot of capacities and a big group of these are my current choir students as well. The first time I worked with Carl (Beetlejuice) was when I was the assistant director producing High School Musical 2 here and talked to him into joining choir and then got him in the theater program.
I’ve worked with a lot of these kids. Having directed Mary Poppins last year has a lot of returners. There’s some new kids as well, some who I’ve never seen before who are just doing some amazing things. But it is really cool getting to work in so many areas. Some of these kids were also in SpongeBob, and so I got to just act and perform with them, which is really cool as well.
TDW: How do you switch between being the actor versus being the director?
KS: I get to often just sit back and watch them and maybe give them some advice sometimes like this is what you should do for a costume change. The Bishop Center is technically an adult show so they’re casting mostly adults, and 1/4 of the cast was active Aberdeen High School choir students. It’s just really cool to see them representing themselves in a sort of professional capacity.
TDW: Macie, how long have you been involved with 7th Street Kids?
ML (Delia Schlimmer): This is my fifth year, and I’ve been doing other shows around the Harbor as well.
Monroe Hancock (Maxie Dean): I’ve been doing 7th Street for two years now. I have been doing theater for basically my entire life. When I moved to Washington, 7th Street Kids was really close by.
TDW: What do you like about theater?
MH: I like singing and some dancing, mostly singing.
TDW: Do you gravitate more toward the musicals rather than plays?
MH: I do like musicals a lot more than the plays.
TDW: Cason, I recognize you as a dancer in Once Upon a Mattress. Do you gravitate more toward dancing roles?
Cason Braaten (Charles Deetz): Yeah, I do. This is my seventh year at 7th Street.
TDW: All the activities you all could be doing during your summer, why do you choose to participate in 7th Street Kids?
ML: A lot of it is the connections and friends you make while you’re here, because this program is one that very much forces you to be social with everyone, and it forces you to come out of your shell. And you build such a great community here. It’s just amazing to be a part of, and also you get to be in a musical, which is pretty cool.
MH: Connections is literally what I was going to say. That is the main reason I love doing theater is to meet a lot of my friends who like doing the same things I do.
CB: I like to do theater because it gives me something to do outside of summer, because I feel that if I didn’t do it, I’d be trapped in my room and doing nothing.
But I also like to put on a character and be somebody that’s not me and put it on for somebody else — for other people’s enjoyment, for other people’s entertainment. And I just love to help communities, so I like to put on a show, help be a part of the show and have people have a good laugh, have fun. And I also like supporting the people around me.
TDW: Do you find that by being in character, you’re able to be goofier than you would in real life?
MH: I really like acting and doing the accents type stuff. I can do quite a few and being in the musical can help me get to express it.
TDW: How does participating in theater help you academically?
CB: Theater has helped me not care what other people think and just be myself. Be who I am and not worry about what other people think of me and just be my own person.
Also being able to make friends and just being able to be in a good mood and being positive all around. Just being able to be a good person. Because theater has a thing where you can meet new people you don’t know and it shapes you into a better person. I feel like I’ve become a nicer person because of theater and it really helped me during school.
ML: It helps a lot with story analysis, critical thinking.
TDW: If kids are not really sure if they want to go into theater, what would you say to them to just take the leap and try it out?
CB: I would tell them that if they don’t want to go on stage yet, they can do back stage, so then they’re getting into the feeling of being on stage.
But then if they’re actually thinking about doing it, I would tell them that it’s really fun and that you can make friends and that it’s a really good social skill. It’s fun to do and it definitely exerts you.
ML: If you don’t want to be on stage, there’s a lot of different roles you could be. You could help with makeup, you can help with hair, you can help with doing like spotlights or working with the sound booth. There’s so many things that happen behind the scenes that people don’t realize and it would be really cool if we could get more people to do that.
MH: Musical theater has literally changed my life. Just even being involved in something like this, it’s just magical and I can’t explain it. Just take a risk.
Performance schedule
July 30, July 31 and Aug. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Aug. 2 at 2 p.m.
Tickets may be purchased online at https://7thstreetkids.org/tickets/.
For ticket presales, visit one of their ticket outlets:
Tinderbox Coffee Roasters – 113 E Wishkah St., Aberdeen
Harbor Drug – 316 8th St., Hoquiam
Valu Drug – 201 E Pioneer Ave., Montesano
Mocha Madness – 125 W Chance a La Mer NW, Ocean Shores
The above outlets only accept cash or check payable to “7th Street Kids.”
Tickets will also be available at the 7th Street Theatre box office on performance days, one hour before showtimes.
