River View students set to perform ‘The Little Mermaid’
Disney production: Flounder, also known as Morgan Anglin, and Ariel, better known as Olivia Welch, react to a human item that was found during one of the scenes in “The Little Mermaid.” The River View High School Music Department is presenting the Disney musical on Friday and Saturday, April 29-30. Beacon photo by Josie Sellers
WARSAW – Disney was a big part of Olivia Welch’s childhood and now she gets to portray a character she grew up watching.
“It’s super cool to be Ariel,” she said. “This is the biggest part I’ve had in any of our shows at River View. I’ve watched the Broadway show tons of times to prepare. ”
Welch is a senior at River View High School whose musical department will present Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 29-30, in the high school auditorium. Admission is $5 and there will be a dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. before the show for $7 for adults and $5 for children under 12. For tickets, e-mail rvhsmusical@gmail.com or call the RVHS office at 740-824-3522.
Senior Elizabeth Ferris is excited to play Ursula in the production.
“She is quite evil,” Ferris said. “I wanted to be her because she has a really low range and I’m an alto and don’t do anything above that. It’s a great opportunity for me to do songs in my range and she’s a fun character. She has all these overdone evil facial expressions.”
Garrett Fabian will be Prince Eric in “The Little Mermaid.”
“This is my fifth year involved in productions at River View and I wanted to go for the biggest part I could get,” said the RVHS senior.
Junior Michael Belt is having fun portraying Sebastian the crab and singing iconic songs from “The Little Mermaid” such as “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl.”
“I wanted to be Sebastian because I kind of like the way he acts,” Belt said. “He’s funny and I had a funny part last year in our musical and wanted something similar to that. ‘The Little Mermaid’ is super fun and it has a great lesson with it. Ariel wants to do her own thing and her dad has to learn that she is old enough to be her own person and has to do what she needs to.”
Ariel’s sidekick throughout her adventures in the musical is Flounder the fish who senior Morgan Anglin has the pleasure of playing.
“He’s always very excited and is very attached to Ariel,” Anglin said. “It’s different playing a person than a fish. I’ve had to develop a new set of acting skills like how to flap my fins faster.”
There are a total of 65 students involved in the production including the cast and crew and several adults who are assisting.
“Every time I see a show I think about if it’s possible for us to do it,” said Debbie English, who directs the musical. “I saw this one this summer and thought we could do it. We always kind of stick with musicals from the 40s, 50s, and 60s and the kids have wanted to do a more modern one. The trouble with those is that a lot of them only have one or two soloists or stars. I liked this one because it’s more of an ensemble and no one person stood out. It has a lot of individual parts and they get to expand into playing non-humans.”
River View has the pleasure of saying it is one of the first high schools in the nation to perform the full Broadway version of “The Little Mermaid.” Being able to that was not cheap though and they are very thankful for their patrons.
“Most shows are $5,000 to $6,000 with having to get the rights and everything, but this one is closer to $10,000,” English said. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate all the business and community members that support us every year.”
josie@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
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