BVN’s theater department has been working in preparation for their upcoming musical “The Little Mermaid” ever since their last production, “Tartuffe”, ended in mid October.
“The Little Mermaid” will be performed at Blue Valley North on Feb. 5-7 after almost four months of preparation and rehearsals from the actors and actresses, the tech crew and all of the other members of the theater department that play a role in making this musical work.
This musical, also a classic Disney animation, is the department’s yearly musical selection following their musical last year, “Chicago”.
Joslyn Selser is a senior who has been with the BVN theater department for four years, and is playing the role of Ariel in the musical.
“I feel that your dedication to the project and your character is really important to establish a well-rounded and authentic character at the start,” Selser said. “So then throughout the project, you can continue developing into the world of the story and your character’s intentions.”
An additional aspect of preparation for “The Little Mermaid” happened over the summer as well, with BVN Theater hosting a camp for elementary schoolers for a youth performance of the musical as well before rehearsals had begun for the high school production. Selser was helped with the camp.
“[The camp] was really enjoyable and a great way to get our show to connect to our community,” Selser Said.
Actors and actresses also have to work with balancing their rehearsals with other commitments such as school work.
Junior Eloise Arnold shares how she handles the work load.
“It depends on the roles, since I’m a featured dancer, I’m in a lot of the musical numbers, so I have to learn a lot of choreography for those,” Arnold said. “So some people are called on more days more frequently than others, so it’s just really a matter of how often you will be on stage.”
Some key aspects of the production stick out more than others. Certain acts containing more songs than others, and some songs requiring more time and sometimes additional preparation based on their duration. Arnold is overally excited for the musical.
“I’m most excited for people to see our big number under the sea, which we’ve been working on since the first week of rehearsals, and I think it will just be a lot of fun,” Arnold said.
Outside of the work being done, whether it be on different songs or how the actors and actresses handle that work with other commitments, other aspects of the preparation for a musical may not be understood by those not familiar with theater.
“I think most people don’t know how physically and mentally taxing performing a show can be,” Selser said. “When people think about competing in an athletic competition, they understand that they have to train and work really hard for that. It’s the same thing for our shows. We train really hard and we prep really hard and we work really hard when we perform.”
