On May 29, GP’s drama club had their final performance of their second production of the year, The Little Mermaid. Under the direction of Carol Butler, students in drama had spent months  practicing every detail of the musical. They spent hours outside of school learning lines, practicing music, building sets, and finalizing lighting decisions. Out of the 32 cast members, the leads were Britta Jorgensen, Landon Thompson, Lucas Herber, Alana Flores, Arietty Power, and Brandon Oke. The cast was assisted by the set and costume designers, lighting technicians, and pit orchestra to bring the play together. “It’s really great. The cast was a lot bigger than Peter and the Starcatcher. You get to see people in vulnerable positions and at their happiest and at their lowest. And it’s definitely a big bonding experience, especially in the beginning with the cast. And then further when the crew and the cast get together more,” said Alana Flores. 

 Alongside the cast members, the set designers were working to create the various sets and props used to create the “Under the Sea” landscapes along with scenes like “Les Poissons” which features the Chef Louis played by Cole Harbak. “First we built the sets, and then we painted them. And then for the shows we would just move them on and offstage. While we were building and painting them, we would socialize, or repaint them outside. And we did that for like two or three months. And then when it starts getting close to the performances we start making props,” Sabine Kenney said. 

Costume designers repurposed old costumes that had been used for other performances to make them more fit for The Little Mermaid. They searched through aisles of options in thrift stores to try to find other old clothes that could be redesigned. “We started in January, so it was like five months, it was a lot of work. I made all the pants the whole show, which was really fun. I liked seeing all the wedding dresses and the ballgowns and stuff, we dyed all those. We would make the costumes or find them, like what we have in storage. And we’d work with that and try to turn things that aren’t animals into animals. We took costumes from previous shows and changed it to fit this show,”  Carly Simicich said. 

Due to funding reasons, a physical pit orchestra, which consisted of students in the school was used rather than backing tracks. The pit orchestra also worked through tech week, each of the 16 members having to study around 40 pieces of music. The orchestra was mostly comprised of people from Glacier Peak’s band. “It was a lot of fun, it was a little overwhelming at first. But I knew if I just sat back a little bit and studied the part, then everything would be alright. In the end it turned out really great, we all had a lot of fun. And in the case that I got to conduct I got to actually watch the performers, the cast members, act in the whole act. When you’re down in the pit that isn’t something you get to see, and sometimes it can be tricky to hear. So I think getting a different perspective was really fun,” Liam Presler said. 

Many people from stage managers to cast members to lighting managers worked hard to make The Little Mermaid. They spent hours after school finalizing every detail to make it perfect for viewers. Every person played some sort of part in making the play a good experience for audiences.