Petitcodiac Regional School's new musical adds two more show dates to keep up with demand

Middle School Musical: The Little Mermaid Students in Petitcodiac, N.B., bring The Little Mermaid to life on their main stage.

After nearly 10 months of rehearsals, 43 students from grades six to eight at Petitcodiac Regional School in Petitcodiac, N.B., are ready for their curtain call.

“I’m feeling pretty excited, a bit tired, but I think I’m ready,” said Grade 8 student Samuel Bowser who plays King Triton.

“It takes a lot of communication, especially backstage, but I think we’re a very good cast, we work well together and we communicate pretty good.”

Over the next four days, on their own school stage, the Petitcodiac Regional School drama club is putting on their version of The Little Mermaid.

The cast has performances lined up for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night and after selling out all three of their original dates, two more shows have been added on Saturday afternoon and evening.

“I think people should come out and watch our production because we’ve put so much time and effort into it. We have an amazing cast, amazing costumes and I think it’s a really incredible production,” said Grade 7 student Lila Clarke who is staring as Ariel in her first-ever lead role.

“I was very excited that it was The Little Mermaid, it’s one of my favourite Disney movies."

The upcoming actors and actresses have found a way to bring the well-known characters and classic scenes to life.

“I put a little bit of my personality in it, but I generally try to match it up with the story,” said Bowser.

“He’s very serious, he can be angry at times, I would say he has anger issues and disappointed in his daughter, but there’s a big change that goes on and he ends up being proud.”

Teacher Jennifer Bastarache says the magic doesn’t just happen on the stage either - she’s watched the students grow and gain confidence throughout the school year.

“It develops skills beyond the classroom, things like resiliency, teamwork, communication, not to mention all the skills they would learn through performing arts whether that’s working on singing, music, dancing, acting, so it really gives kids a lot of scope to work on different types of skills,” she said.

“The growth is huge and it’s just nice to see them. We’ve got so many kids that are great developing singers and actors and there’s so much talent on the stage.”

Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at the office during school hours. People can also purchase them at the door if any are still available, but Bastarache says updates will be posted to the PRS Drama Club Facebook page.

“It’s a fun show, it’s got lots of great numbers, we’ve got great costumes that were done by Michael Mcardle, and just a bunch of kids that are really having fun on stage and hopefully when you watch it, you will have just as much fun as an audience member,” she said.

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