A fun-loving, mischievous mermaid was on full display with all of her sea-creature friends and foes Jan. 19 at the Parkland High School Theater's dress rehearsal for its children's show, Disney's "The Little Mermaid Jr.," which will run Jan. 25-27.

As they danced and sang their way through the production numbers, it was evident this under-the-sea spectacular and its cast and crew are ready to bring some Disney magic to their audiences.

"I love everything magical," Director Elizabeth Smith said. "I feel like the world needs more of that.

"They need a little imagination. They need a little Disney in their life.

"It's a story of hope. She's got her trials and errors, but it's like you're on that journey hoping her dreams come true."

For some of the actors and actresses, their dreams came true when they discovered the selection for the children's show.

"Little Mermaid was always my favorite show and Ariel was a dream role of mine forever," said freshman Megan Schmidt, who plays Ariel.

"I just got excited because it was one of my favorite Disney movies when I was growing up. It's a fun cast number," fellow freshman Abby Kern, who plays the villainous Ursula, added.

Although "The Little Mermaid Jr." is the theater program's children's show, the cast and crew put in the same amount of work in order to make the show shine come performance time.

"Even though it's a children's show, we don't treat it any differently than any of the other productions that we do here," Producer, English and theater teacher Andrea Roposh said. "The rehearsals are just as long. They're required to do just as much work, but it's really incredible when you think all of the kids that are onstage are freshmen and sophomores."

The children's show provides a unique opportunity for the younger classes at Parkland to step into the spotlight and experience being onstage at an early point in their high school theater careers.

"It makes a smoother transition from year to year so we don't lose big classes and not really have anybody coming under them," senior lighting designer Steve Titus said.

Although the cast is all freshmen and sophomores, junior and senior crew members work alongside adult members of the production to mentor and support them.

"What I have enjoyed most is seeing the kids' talent and creativity and how that has just grown and blossomed and how they bring their own personality and bring their parts alive," Musical Director Christine Lerew said. "I think that's been my greatest joy is to watch the kids' talent really grow through this and how they develop as young musicians and performers through this experience."

Although they are just starting their high school theater careers, many of the cast members have prior acting experience, some of which go back to fifth grade such as Schmidt and Kern.

In addition to Schmidt as Ariel and Kern as Ursula, freshman Kyle Cohick will play Prince Eric and classmate Jake Stahl will scold Ariel as Sebastian.

Having four freshmen leads may be somewhat unusual, but their confidence showed as they rehearsed onstage.

"I think the fact that we are all freshmen just comes to show that we have talent in the freshmen class coming up," Stahl said. "We're losing a lot of talented seniors this year, so we've got to have something coming up."

The cast has already proven themselves to their musical director, who works with them to achieve the best sound possible.

"This particular group happens to be a very vocally mature and especially talented group of people," Lerew said. "I think they are fabulous to work with."

While the young actors and actresses grow with every song and dance onstage, members of the crew have been hard at work making everything possible behind-the-scenes.

In addition to Titus, seniors Ryan Allsop, Olivia Reiser and Steve Cavanaugh fill in the necessary roles of student technical director, stage mmanager and sound board operator and sound design, respectively.

They help to lead the crew, who take as much pride in their work as the performers do onstage.

"Nobody knows what we do until we don't do it," Allsop said.

"They may have all of their movements and dancing and singing choreographed onstage, but we choreograph everything behind-the-scenes," Reiser added. "We make sure it runs smoothly behind so we can transition into everything else."

The most spectacular result of the crew's work is the combined piece of Prince Eric's ship and King Triton's Throne Room, which was transformed from the grand staircase used in Parkland's "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," two years ago.

"It was either you transform this and use it several different ways and have to turn it, or you have to make several other different things," Reiser said. "We already had this, and we didn't want to take it apart at the time, so it didn't seem too bad to just add some wood and some other props and fabric."

With the musical's opening performance fast approaching, there are still a few kinks to be worked out, but the Disney spirit is alive and spreading quickly at Parkland.

"I think that the songs and the dances are cute, and the production numbers are awesome. It's always technical elements," Smith said. "They can go wrong in any show, but as long as they bring the joy of the story, the actors can handle whatever comes their way."

Although it is a children's show, "The Little Mermaid Jr." has elements that appeal to all ages, making it a worthwhile trip to join in and relive Ariel's adventure.

"We're definitely doing the name justice," Allsop said. "We have amazing voices. It's Disney onstage."

Disney's "The Little Mermaid Jr." will be pesented 7:30 p.m. Jan. 25, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Jan. 26 and 3 p.m Jan. 27 at Parkland High School.