MANSFIELD — Ella Aquino doesn’t have to blow up like a giant blueberry this time at the Mansfield Playhouse.
Instead, the 14-year-old Lucas High School incoming freshman has the musical challenge of bringing the beloved role of Ariel to life in “Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr.” at the Mansfield Playhouse.
The show opens Friday at 7 p.m. on a two-weekend, five-show run at the community theater on East Third Street with a cast of more than 40 area youngsters in a fast-paced, 90-minute musical.
It’s the final production of the 2024-2025 schedule at the Playhouse, which has included five main-stage shows, two Second Stage productions and two youth theater performances.
Playing Ariel is quite the contrast from the role as Violet Beauregarde that Aquino took on in 2022 in “Willy Wonka Jr.,” playing a gum-chomping “beastly girl” who demanded her own way in every turn in the popular story, refusing to listen to cautions about chewing the experimental gum that eventually forced the Oompa Loompas to “extract” blueberry juice.
The contrast in roles is not lost on Aquino, already a youth theater veteran of five previous shows at the Playhouse
“Violet is very outgoing. She just doesn’t really think before she says anything. She is very sassy and thinks ‘I will get whatever I want,'” Aquino said of her Willy Wonka role.
“I wouldn’t say Ariel is shy. She can be be shy if she wants to be. But she’s also outgoing when she chooses. She keeps her emotions to herself and chooses when to expresses them, but she’s not sassy or anything,” Aquino said.
“Disney’s Little Mermaid Jr.” stages June 6-7 and 13-14 at 7 p.m. A matinee is scheduled June 15 at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and $10 for students.
Call 419-522-2883 to purchase tickets. The box office is open Wednesdays through Fridays from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and one hour prior to all performances.
Tickets can also be purchased online at https://www.mansfieldplayhouse.com/tickets/tickets/
‘She’s grown quite a bit’
Playhouse Artistic Director Doug Wertz said he has seen Aquino’s growth on stage, especially in her vocals in a show that includes the beautiful and haunting “Part of Your World.”
“She’s been in a few things, but she’s grown quite a bit. She has an absolutely lovely voice, just lovely. That’s a real good thing. You count on that,” he said.
Aquino, one of 96 area youngsters who auditioned for the show, had her heart set on Ariel, the beautiful, young mermaid who longs to leave her ocean home — and her fins — behind and live in the world above.
The character is based on the title character of Hans Christian Andersen‘s 1837 fairy tale “The Little Mermaid,” but was developed into a different personality for the 1989 animated film adaptation.
First, she’ll have to defy her father, King Triton, make a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, and convince the handsome Prince Eric that she’s the girl whose enchanting voice he’s been seeking.
Aquino came to auditions with the power of positive thinking.
“I was really hoping I got Ariel. I just kept saying in my head, ‘I will get Ariel. I will get Ariel.’ And it kind of just happened,” she said.
“I love Ariel because she has a lot of emotions and she is just a good example of a typical teenage girl being in love. I kind of like that for her,” Aquino said.
(Below are photos taken Monday evening during a dress rehearsal of “Disney’s The Little Mermaid Jr.” at the Mansfield Playhouse. The story continues below the photos.)
‘He is just very dramatic’
Graycen Stevens portrays Sebastian, the fast-talking sea crustacean tasked by the king with keeping an eye on Ariel.
“Sebastian is very outgoing … he’s a character. He’s very proud in all that he does. He is very fun to play,” the 14-year-old homeschooled student said. “You get to break down on stage. You get to go all out. He is just very dramatic.”
Playing the widest range of emotions is also a challenge for Stevens, who played a different role in the same show a few years ago at the Renaissance Theatre.
“His mood tends to swing from, ‘I’m happy, I am doing great,’ to ‘oh, gosh, I am crying because Ariel got out again,'” said Stevens, who performed at the Playhouse in January in “Alice in Wonderland” and in March at the The Ren in Mary Poppins.”
In his 15th show at local venues, Stevens takes on the task of singing lead in another of the show’s staple songs, “Under the Sea.”
“It’s definitely rough trying to bring it all together, but you just got to go with it like it’s any other song,” he said.
Having grown up on local stages since the age of 8, Stevens has become an “elder statesman” in local musicals that include many younger children. That’s another role he enjoys.
“I definitely see myself in a lot of these kids. They are great and amazing,” he said.
‘I try to be bold in life … but not to this extent’
Like Stevens, 16-year-old Morgyn Beasley is already a stage veteran with more than a dozen shows to her credit. In January, she played the hyperkinetic White Rabbit in “Alice in Wonderland” at the Playhouse.
She made her Playhouse debut in 2022 as Lady Aristo in “Beauty and the Beast.”
A junior at the Mansfield Classical Academy in Madison Township when classes resume this fall, Beasley portrays Scuttle in the current show, a male seagull who helps Ariel navigate the top-side world and provides humorous, often inaccurate, explanations of human objects and inventions.
It’s a role her older sister once portrayed on stage at The Ren.
“He is very out there …. not afraid to say what’s on his mind. Just very bold about everything he does,” Beasley said. “I try to be bold (in real life), but not to this extent,” she said with a laugh.
Also like Stevens, Beasley welcomes the opportunity to help younger performers on stage during the rehearsal process, paying it forward as others have done for her.
“There was one person in particular that I really looked up to. I still look up to her now that she’s in college, but I hope I can be that person where little kids can come to me and ask questions about acting, singing, or even just personal things,” she said.
“I would love to be that for (person) for them,” said Beasley, who also participates on the soccer team at Mansfield Christian School.
Season ending, but no time to rest
The end of the current season is no time to rest for Wertz, in the midst of leading a $7.5 million capital campaign to build a new theater that will launch its 100th season in 2025.
“We get a break from production anyway,” said Wertz, who built the sets and directed seven of the nine shows this season. “Now we switch to season sponsorships, programs, and seeking advertisers for the programs.
“I get to switch from director to salesman and hope people will talk to me,” he said with a laugh.
The respite is short with auditions for the season-opening “Moon Over Buffalo” coming up at the end of July.
The enthusiasm of young people like the cast of “The Little Mermaid” help make his work easier — and yet more difficult.
“The talent that this town has, especially when it comes to the kids, is remarkable. Once they get on stage and what they can do is pretty wonderful.
“It’s so nice to be able to showcase that, but it’s so hard to turn kids away (after auditions) when they’re on a level playing field. Choosing the cast is not an easy task,” he said.
The cast for “Disney’s Little Mermaid Jr.”
Ella Aquino — Ariel
Estelle Bramlage — Flounder
Ian Estrada-Gomez — Prince Eric
Drake Ramey — Grimsby
Nolan Shambaugh — Pilot/Chorus
Logan Rush — Seahorse/Chorus
Aurelian Von Ehrenkrook — King Triton
Graycen Stevens — Sebastian
Madelyn Shafley — Aquata/Princess
Taylor Beasley — Andrina/Princess
Makenzie Wynn — Arista/Princess
Breckelle Miller — Atina/Princess
Micah Burton — Adella/Princess
Gwyneth Jones –Alana/Princess
Morgyn Beasley — Scuttle
Kinley Clow — Ursula
Jada Shambaugh — Flotsam
Halle Williams Jetsam
Kaddalyn McGary — Carlotta/Chorus
Tim Jackson — Chef Louis/S&E
Gabriel Anderson — Sailors/Escorts
Will Stewart — Sailors/Escorts
Kenon Burton — Sailors/Escorts
Adon Burton — Sailors/Escorts
Macie Simmering — Gull/Chef
Audrey Boller — Gull/Chef
Kennadi Knipp — Gull/Chef
Layla Taylor — Gull/Chef
Olivia Brumagin — Gull/Chef
Selah Wolbert — Sea Chorus
Julia Burton — Sea Chorus
Milla Wertz — Sea Chorus
Sophie Shepherd — Sea Chorus
Beatrice Jones — Sea Chorus
Sahar Bond — Sea Chorus
Anna Ankrum — Sea Chorus
Delta Davis — Sea Chorus
Ellyana Finlay — Sea Chorus
Scarlett Swisher — Sea Chorus
Elijah Burton — Sea Chorus
Stella McNary — Sea Chorus
Roman Hipfl — Sea Chorus
Josie McNary — Sea Chorus