ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
The Liberal community will soon be able to be treated to a tale as old as time.
Cottonwood Elementary School will be presenting “Beauty & the Beast” Friday, April 11 at Maskus Auditorium at Liberal High School. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the show will be at 7 p.m. Admission is free to everyone in the community.
Director Aspen Jaramillo said the decision to do the show came rather overwhelmingly from the students.
“Last year, we did 'The Little Mermaid,' and everyone really seemed to like the Disney Princess theme, so I took a vote with the students to choose from 'Frozen' and 'Beauty & the Beast,' and they overwhelmingly wanted to go with 'Beauty & the Beast.' It was important for me to choose something the students actually wanted to do and would have fun with,” Jaramillo said. “We have a slightly smaller cast this time around – with 'The Little Mermaid,' we had 38 students participate in that, and this time around, we have 33 students participating, meaning there are some students playing multiple parts. It's a challenge, but they're stepping up to that, and they've been all in since we started rehearsal. They want to work hard and put in the energy and time, and it's a great group of students I'm working with.”
Jaramillo and some of her students offered some encouragement for people in the community to come see the show.
“This is our third show, so it's quickly becoming an annual event for everyone and a lot of people are looking forward to it. The students are so excited and ready to be out onstage, and you feel their joy and energy as they're performing, so it's going to be a great show,” Jaramillo said. “We had such a huge audience when we did 'The Little Mermaid' last year, and just from chatter I've been hearing, we could be seeing an even bigger audience for 'Beauty & the Beast,' which is amazing and should be even more motivation for these students. We've been working on the show since January, and since it's just a one-night-only situation, you won't want to miss it. Just come out and show your support for these students and watch them.”
“It's going to be a good show, and we want to see as many people as possible, and it'll also help us all not be scared when we get onstage,” Janessa Mendoza, who portrays Belle in the show, said. “It's been really fun, you get to be part of a big show with a bunch of other kids, and that just makes it way more fun. I love how at the end of all the hard work and rehearsals, we get to present something really neat for people in town. With Belle, I've liked getting inside her head and learning her music and everything, it's been really fun. I've always really liked singing and all of that, and 'Beauty & the Beast' is a perfect way to be able to do that.”
“Doing a show like this has also helped a lot of us not be scared to be in front of people, and we can't wait to show off what we've done,” Jaylee Rivera, who portrays Miss Potts in the show, added. “It was a little scary at first, but once we got going, it started being really fun, and I can't wait for everyone to see the show and see us all onstage. It's been really fun for us to put together. I've also always really liked singing, and I was in 'The Little Mermaid' last year, which was really fun, so I wanted to do the show again this year.”
“It's a great show, and it's pretty well known, so I hope people come out and see us and enjoy it all,” Silas Saldaña, who portrays Gaston in the show, said. “It's been really fun meeting a bunch of new people, and I've had the time of my life being part of all of this. I'm excited to show people what we've done, and I want to show how if you put in the time and dedication, you can do anything. I really like being Gaston because his role is basically the personification of 'What goes around comes around.' I've never really thought of myself as much of a singer, but I wanted to try something new, and this seemed like something that would be really fun.”
Overall, Jaramillo said, it has been very enjoyable putting the show together.
“I have a lot of newbies this time around who have never been in a musical, and I've also got some 'veterans' who have done 'Shrek' and/or 'The Little Mermaid,' so it's a great mix,” Jaramillo said. “We're all still navigating some of that theatre etiquette and working through all the music and everything else. We actually made our way through the music in the first month of rehearsals, and then February was spent putting together the blocking and choreography. Now, we're doing a rough run-through of the show pretty much every rehearsal, and it's been amazing. There's a lot of excitement, along with some nerves, particularly for my newbies, and my veterans have been helping with that by talking them through everything. I will admit though, the costumes have been a bit of a challenge, like Belle's dress and the costumes for Chip and Miss Potts, but we have amazing costumes for this time around and I can't wait for everyone to see them. We've been able to make some upgrades in terms of graphics and effects and things like that to make the show really, really big, and I can't wait for everyone to see what we've been able to put together.”
“It's really fun because you get to be a cool character, and if you haven't ever been part of a musical before, this is a really fun way to jump into that and so something you've always wanted to do. I'm really excited to show it to everyone who comes, I hope they really like how we've put it together,” Rivera added. “Ms. Jaramillo told us there were 500 people in the audience for last year's show, and she said from what she's heard, there could be even more, so I'm really excited to see how many people come out. With Miss Potts, it's been really fun learning the blocking and choreography, and it's been fun working with everyone else in the show. I also hope I help maybe inspire someone else to try out for a future show if they're interested.”
Overall, the group agreed, they expect another successful show.
“I would just like to encourage everyone to come out that evening, because these students have been working so, so hard on this show, and they're ready to show everyone what they've been working on,” Jaramillo said. “'Beauty & the Beast' is such a well-known show, and I really feel like we've put our stamp on it to make it great for the audience.”
“Like I said earlier, if there's something you really want to do, don't be shy and just go for it. Also, come and see the show, because it'll be awesome!” Saldaña added.
