The wonderful actors and actresses at Woods School in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin recently produced our musical comedy, Lady Pirates of the Caribbean. Check out their wonderful performance of “Señoritas from Madrid” by clicking here. Beautiful performance, ladies! 

All hands on deck! Hans Christian Andersen’s classic story of The Little Mermaid is adapted into a musical and revamped to tell the story as if it were happening today. The daughters of the Sea King Poseidon get a special treat when they turn sixteen: their singing voice is fully developed and they get to spend a day on land to see what life is like out of the ocean. Poseidon’s youngest daughter Flora agonizes through the stories of her five sisters’ adventures on the surface. When it’s finally her turn, Flora loves what she sees on land so much, she decides to become human and strikes a deal with the evil Sabrina, but it’s not without a price. Flora has to trade her new singing voice for legs, and  “Oh,” Sabrina declares, “one other little thing, you have three days to make a prince fall in love with you” or else Flora will turn into sea foam.    

Colorful and energetic dialogue is paired with fast-paced music to tell this enchanting story. Best of all, there are so many songs it’s like an opera, so line memorization is a breeze! This musical’s large cast has many parts for actors of all ages and abilities. The cast can be as large at 60 players or as small as 18. This 70-minute, two-act play can be staged as elaborately or as simple as you want. Sample music titles include “Oh to Go to the Ocean,” “Mermaid’s Voice,” “The Sailor’s Life for Me,” “It’s Good to be Bad,” “Who Needs Love,” “More to See than the Sea,” and many more.  

Excerpt from The Little Mermaid

Mary Depner, a new author to Meriwether publishing, was interviewed by élite Magazine, a Valencia, California publication. While her recently published book 50/50 Monologues for Student Actors is the conversation starter, the feature article also discusses the books she’s published, five in all, and why she chose teens as her audience. You can read the article by clicking here.  

About the Author

Mary holds a B.A. in Acting/Directing from Florida Atlantic University where she studied with Edward Albee and Joshua Logan. She also studied Opera and performed in The Medium by Carlo Menotti and La Serva Padrona by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.

Mary Depner taught drama for ten years and has directed and performed in countless plays.

Mary’s published writings include Sugared and Spiced: 100 Monologues for Girls and Echo Booming Monologues: 100 Monologues for Teens, both published by Jelliroll, Inc. Mary is delighted to be published with Meriwether and looks forward to writing many more books in the future.

In addition to writing for the stage, Mary enjoys singing, reading, and watching independent and foreign films.