It’s approximately 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, March 14, and Salem High School Theatre Director Alexandra Schmitt is with a group of students going over a mic check and making sure they are mentally prepared to give their best effort.

In less than 30 minutes, the first of four productions of The Little Mermaid will take place in the school’s auditorium over three days.

What Schmitt emphasized to her students was simple: trust in the hard work they’ve collectively put in and just have fun.

“Some of the best performers that I have had the pleasure of working with all had a few things in common: possessing a positive attitude, being a team player and having respect for others. Bringing every bit of energy into a performance, both in rehearsal and during show night, is very important too,” she said.

In June 2018, Schmitt, along with Salem High Choir Teacher Kristi Vernon, began brainstorming on possible options for a high school production. They ultimately agreed on Disney’s The Little Mermaid, a musical romance story about a mermaid princess who dreams of becoming human after meeting a human prince named Eric.

“ I spent the summer putting movement towards the show as well as planning for the technical elements. Once the school year began, time was then spent gathering ‘The Team’ which included our conductor Thomas Graham, and music directors, Kristi and Kerry Morgiewicz and sound tech Trent Overstreet,” Schmitt said. “Once the cast was chosen, we read through the script and got to work. We had a bunch of awesome techies and stage crew led by two wonderful stage managers in Katherine Vaughan and Meredith Hicks.”

Lead characters Ariel (played by Adalynn Eller), Sebastian (Anthony Cotton), Flounder (Hannah Cecil), King Triton (Reid Burton), Ursula (Rylie Lawrence) and Prince Eric (Skyler Allen) brought a certain charm and confidence to the stage.

One scene that generated audience laughter was when Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian traveled to the ocean surface to watch the celebration of Prince Eric’s birthday on a ship.

Said attendee Jay Duckworth, “I laughed out loud when Prince Eric first met Sebastian. The Little Mermaid is the first Disney movie I ever saw, and these students did the story justice. Their chemistry was nothing short of amazing.”

In the spring of 2017, during her senior year at Roanoke College, Alexandra Schmitt was hired by Salem City Schools. Over the last two years, she has been involved in several high school productions such as William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” C.B. Gilford’s “Anybody for Tea,” and “Lucille Fletcher’s “Sorry, Wrong Number.”

“I always loved the story of The Little Mermaid. The overall themes that this story radiates – family, love and self-discovery – are very relatable,” Schmitt said. “I also thought this would be a fun challenge for the technical elements of the show, as well as having four students strictly playing a large wave that stretches from one side of the stage to the other. I am so very proud of the end product.”