By Weston Irons Posted April 27, 2016
“The Little Mermaid“ swam its way into the drama department and swam its way into our hearts after a week full of awe-inspiring performances.
“The Little Mermaid“ takes on a bit of a different twist to the Disney movie that we all know and love. The drama and stagecraft classes worked hard for the last few months to bring a masterpiece to the stage that appeals to people of all ages. Drama presented it for many of the elementary as well as middle school children and also had night performances all week long for the public. A typical day for the drama program consisted of four and a half hours on stage.
Senior and second-year drama student Clay Erquiaga played two pivotal roles in the play as King Dune and as a narrator.
“I think it’s a cool role [King Dune] to play, being a king and stuff, like fighting a sea witch and he has to do some desperate things. He has to make his son marry a woman that he barely even knows,” said Erquiaga.
Erquiaga had positive things to say about the sets the Stagecraft students created.
Erquiaga said, “I like the set designs because they are pretty elaborate like Janagga’s cave is probably one of the best-set designs we’ve ever done. If I had to pick my favorite scene, it would be the throne palace of King Oceanus or Janagga’s cave because those are probably our best sets.”
Mickey Donovan had some hard-hitting things to say about the production.
“I play Booby the Gannet. I like being super goofy and making people buckle over at the knees,” said Donovan.
It was difficult for Donovan to pinpoint what he liked best.
“It’s a very light fun play so I never get sick of doing it and no matter how many times you watch it, you’ll never get sick of it,” said Donovan.
Donovan did say there was a set of challenges that came with presenting this play.
“The hardest adjustment to make is between the day performances and the night performances because during the day we perform for little kids while the night is more for the older people. They have two different senses of comedy so I would say that is the hardest transition, going from impressing the kids and them impressing the adults while still having that childish feel to it,” said Donovan.
As this is Erquiaga’s last year in drama he has several things he is going to miss about the class.
“I’m going to miss the people that I work with because these are probably some of the most incredible people you’ll ever work with. They put their heart and soul into this kind of stuff and I think that is very special,” concluded Erquiaga.
