It’s T-minus 26 days until opening night for the Carmi League of Arts summer show, The Little Mermaid. Director Sherry Passmore says while practice can feel hectic, she’s confident it will all come together in time for June 16th.
“Once we hit the stage this week and start putting things together, you’ll be like ‘oh we’re farther along than I realized’. That being said, this one had to be put together really fast. So we have a lot of sets that will be morphing as we go along. I think there’s one more graduation on the stage and then it’s ours for the using until the show.”
There’s a lot going on with The Little Mermaid…land, sea, dancing, singing, acting. Passmore isn’t on her own. She’s got Lynn Cantrell and Grace Sinclair working magic on music and vocals. Mackenzie Willis is lending her talents to help with choreography. Amy Craig and her daughter Chaselyn Bain are heading up costumes and makeup. This is Passmore’s second go around with The Little Mermaid so she can draw from experience while also allowing experience hopefully improve the show.
“I mean it is helpful, but in a way I don’t want it to feel the same. This is totally different people. We want it to feel like a different production than we did. For one, I feel like I’m a little better techwise, that first time was early on for me. We’re also adding some things. Hailey Winkleman is adding some visual tech so she’s going to add some projections and that’s going to really help us differentiate between the land and sea.”
The cast is made up of a mix of around 50 adults, high school and college aged kids, as well as youngsters. CWCHS Junior-to-be Laney York will play Ariel and the just graduated Dacin Rudolph will do the wooing as Prince Eric. Rachel Sinclair is the treacherous Ursula, Jason Craig plays Ariel’s father King Triton. Niah Haley is Flounder, Aidan Willis stars as Sebastian, and Ryan Bartley will play the winged Scuttle. Passmore says main characters are coming along even better than she could’ve hoped.
“I’m very pleased. In fact, most of them are doing even better than I expected…always a good thing. When you go into casting, you try to visualize the people as each character and sometimes it’s very simple and sometimes, you’re like, I think they can do it. Most of these people I’ve worked with for awhile now so I feel pretty confident in all their abilities.”
Performances will take place from the Carmi White County High School Auditorium on Friday, June 16th at 7:30 along with a matinee and feature on Saturday, June 17th. Accompanying the production will be a Land and Sea Art Show open to all ages and all art media. Artwork should be themed around depictions of life on land or under the sea and must be submitted by June 12th. Email Erica Zieren for additional details and to submit. She can be reached at [email protected].
