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ALLIE ANDERSON (12), Theater Intern, Costumes and Props

This show has thrown a lot of curveballs with props. Mrs. Goble told us at the beginning of rehearsals to keep an eye out for things that you see every day to be used how they aren’t supposed to be. She wanted us to find things that we would use to play pirates in our backyard when we were kids. For example: using a wooden spoon or a music stand like a sword. Everything is so very unexpected. You expect pirate ships, not ladders from the janitor’s closet. Bringing in the unexpected makes the audience think, but not too hard. It brings the audience into our imagination as a whole. We were given a script, but we made it our world.  From our imaginations, we mixed it together, and we got this magical setting and characters. Welcome to our world!

ANDREW CLESTER (12), Theater Intern, Publicity and Production

Why do we do theater? I find myself asking that question every time that we set the stage for Mermaid Outta Me. It’s also a question that Mrs. Goble asked me to answer for the program, so "here we are.”

To answer this question, we first have to ask ourselves why story-telling is such a big part of our culture. Is it because we want to escape the reality of school, work, and taxes if only for a little while? Is it because of our natural instinct to make sense of the world around us by assigning patterns to everyday life? Or is it because we enjoy sharing the places our imaginations take us?

Yes. All of that.

Taking this into account, we do theater because we enjoy not just telling stories, but being apart of them. When you read a book that has well-developed characters, you might identify with one or two of them, and think about what you might do in the situations that they have been put in. Similarly, with theater, we become the characters that we portray. We tell the story, not only with words, but with our actions: quivering before a schoolmaster with a whip or rushing to throw our arms around someone we thought we had lost. Emotion is what drives the human experience, and it’s what drives us to do theater.

RACHEL MANNING (11), Choreographer, Mermaid Outta Me

I choreographed the entr’acte for Peter. "Mermaid Outta Me" is quite wildly out of place and really makes no sense, but it adds a very fun aspect to the show. I got most of my inspiration from clips from other performances of this show, but I also had a great time getting to pull inspiration from the music itself. I was very blessed with the actors in this show; they give so much energy in this goofy group number. I challenged them to take it a step further than the moves and make it their own. I am so very glad that I had the chance to take on this role for Mrs. Goble and experience the joys of directing. My wish is that this number brings a smile to your face as I have so enjoyed putting it together.