NLHS Drama Dept. presents The Little Mermaid Thursday-Sunday

Fans of music theater will be able to travel under the sea this weekend, as the North Lenoir High School department performs the classic Disney favorite, The Little Mermaid.

There will be performances Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. and a matinee Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., in the Young Allen Auditorium at North Lenoir High School. Tickets for the show are $10 in advance, and $15 at the door. Student tickets are $6.

The show will be the 65th production directed by NLHS drama teacher Marian Kennedy over the years. Kennedy said she is excited to be directing The Little Mermaid for the first time in her career, but that the most important factor in choosing a show is always finding something that best suits the talents of the actors who will take part in it, and the Disney show fit the bill for her students.

“[The cast has] put in a lot of hard work. I love it when the show comes together...and [seeing] the audience’s reaction,” Kennedy said. Many of the students with roles in the show are seniors acting in their last production at NLHS, and so, Kennedy said, watching them take their last bows will be bittersweet.

For the students ending their high school careers on stage in the show, this weekend is also a time of mixed emotions. Senior Conner Craft, who takes on the role of Ursula, said that inhabiting the role of the villain has been a challenge, but it has also given her the chance to take on a different personality. “It’s a great role to finish on...but I don’t want to say goodbye to this home of mine,” she said.

Senior Jamell Mumford, who will portray the crab Sebastian onstage, said he has also felt the pressure of an important role that is outside his comfort zone. “I’m really going to miss this, once I leave, once I take that final bow on Sunday, because I know it’s going to be over then, and it’s going to be bittersweet,” he said.

For all of the students who have worked on the production, the feeling on the stage changes once the audience is present. “It’s a completely different thing when the audience is here, it’s nice,” Craft said.

To purchase tickets to The Little Mermaid in advance, you can call NLHS at (252) 527-9184.

Correspondent Graham Hill contributed to this report.