Project Info
Project Description
I’ve been a Roald Dahl fan for as long as I can remember. I’m also a huge fan of the amazing Tim Minchin, who of course wrote Matilda The Musical. So I have to admit to being a little star struck when I heard from Martin, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company in London, who wanted me to make snow globes to be given as gifts to the cast and crew of the musical in London, New York, Toronto and closer to home in Brisbane, Australia.
I can’t tell the story of these snow globes without prefacing how much I relate to Matilda’s character. I’ve been a voracious reader my whole life – my primary school teacher called me “The Girl Who Eats Books” because of how fast I would read them. I first discovered Roald Dahl when I bought (with my own pocket money no less) “Fantastic Mr. Fox”. I loved that book, and it was probably the start of my adoration of foxes, manifested more recently in my 2016 Limited Edition snow globe “WinterGreen”. I went on to read almost everything ever written by Mr Dahl, and I find it hard to put into words how much I love his work.
So, as you can tell, it was a pretty amazing experience for me to get this opportunity. Martin and I worked together to come up with a design featuring the “Matilda Pose” – schoolgirl with hands on hips, standing on top of an open book. The pages of the book feature the quotes you see above, stamped into the pages. The globes also feature tiny little silver foil alphabet letters flying around inside. I’m so pleased with the intricacy of the sculpture, especially at such a small size.
Thank you so much for the snow globes – we love them! The cast and crew were all very happy and now the internet is littered with snaps of them!….Martin, Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company
Matilda the Musical has changed my life. From the moment I first watched a video of those adorable original Broadway Matildas singing and dancing to the moment I actually got to experience the magic in my own hometown of Toronto. Matilda has inspire die so much not only with her fierce character to stand up for whats right but also to want to be on Broadway. I’ve always wanted to act but I never realized my true dream of being in a Broadway musical until Matilda came along. And while I’ve scoured everywhere for ways to audition, I’ve always been too old to be in Matilda. My wish, though was that I would be able to get a snow globe like the cast has but I could not find them sold anywhere in the Playbill store. Snow globes are also very close to my heart, as I’ve been collecting them ever since I was a little kid and now have close to 100 snow globes. I would absolutely love to have Matilda snow globe and I was wondering if I would be able to purchase one from you. As the show closes on Broadway and I realize that I will never be able to see it in its true home, or be in the musical itself if would be amazing to have a special keepsake of the musical that changed my life.
What a lovely comment Jordana, I can certainly appreciate your connection to Matilda! Unfortunately, as with most of my projects, the snow globes were made exclusively as gifts for the cast and crew of the various shows in London, New York, Brisbane and Toronto. So they weren’t something made for public sale I’m afraid! I would suggest you keep an eye out on eBay in case someone in the cast or crew chooses to sell it. That has happened a few times with other celeb globes I’ve made, so you may have luck at some stage in the future. Of course, if somehow the end up being made available for public sale I’ll post back here to let you know. All the best, Leah