After three months of hard work and perseverance through sickness and injuries, Ashworth Middle School closed a successful weekend of performances. AMS’s production of The Little Mermaid recently finished its closing night performance on Jan. 18.
Before the “official” opening night of The Little Mermaid in the Blue Box, AMS came up to Gordon Central for two school-day runs. They performed for elementary and high schoolers during first and second period on the 15 last week, then opened for the public the evening of Friday the 16.
Nerves are always high when performing, and this was no different. Several members of Gordon Central’s theater program agreed that they’d be terrified if they’d had to do a school-day run as middle schoolers.
Sierra Davis (Mersister/Princess) can relate to this, especially since she was one of the middle schoolers performing. “During the school shows, I was nervous to know how everyone did.” Despite her initial nerves, the school day runs helped her feel warmed up for opening night.
On the other side of the coin, some of the kids were more scared of opening night than the school day runs. In the words of Maylynn Ramirez (Mersister/Princess), “For the regular shows, I was more nervous because people had paid to see the shows, and I wanted it to be good.” The stress of knowing that people paid to see you can weigh heavy, but it also adds an extra layer of motivation for the actors.
The cast faced many struggles whilst rehearsing the show. Most prominent of these was the widespread sickness that struck the cast in December of 2025. It hindered the cast’s ability to finish blocking and readying scenes before Christmas Break arrived. They managed to pull through, though, and delivered an outstanding performance for a middle school.
Cast members also shared their individual struggles. Getting off-book was a common theme among the performers. Some of them recounted their rehearsal experiences, such as Aubree Fain (Ensemble) and Adianna Brooks (Scuttle), who struggled with memorizing songs and blocking. According to Sarah Gaines (Ursula), some of the blocking was frequently changed and made memorization difficult.
Illness and memorization weren’t the only challenge they faced, though. On closing night after Kiss the Girl, Aaliya Silvers (Ariel), fell getting out of the boat and injured her knee. She missed her entrance in the next scene, but it was no issue for her cast-mates. The kids had been told before they should be ready to ad lib if anything went wrong during the show, and this is exactly what they did. While Aaliya rested her knee backstage, her scene partners Makael McConnell (Prince Eric), Luke Gaines (Grimsby), Emma Lingerfelt (Chef Louis), and JoNann Gaines kept the audience entertained and the show running. Aaliya is fine now, simply sustaining minor bruising to her knee.
While they did face struggles, the cast still found joy during rehearsals. While tech-week was a stressful and chaotic time, it was also JoNann Gaine’s (Sebastian) favorite part of rehearsing for the show. It’s the end-game, adrenaline starts rushing, and you get to witness as this show you’ve been working on for the past three months finally starts coming together.
This isn’t the end of the theatrics for The Little Mermaid cast, though, as many of them plan to audition for Annie Jr. at the Harris Arts Center. Auditions take place in February, and the production opens in May.