Quaker Valley middle schoolers prepare for the curtain to rise on 'Frozen Jr.'

Quaker Valley Middle School performers are near ready to take all that they’ve learned at countless practices the past couple months and let it go on stage.

About 100 students, including 30 on stage crew, will present “Frozen Jr.,” an abridged version of the Disney classic.

“Frozen” tells the story of princess Anna as she leads Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and the snowman Olaf on a journey to find her estranged sister Elsa.

Sixth through eighths graders, under the direction of Tom Forrest and music director Zayna Dayeh, have worked since mid-September to prepare for November’s shows.

Forrest has been with the district the past 14 years. This will be his eighth middle school production.

He said the crop of student performers made this year’s musical selection easy.

“We had a really strong group coming back as eighth graders, and we got so many great incoming sixth graders,” Forrest said. “We knew we also had a pretty strong seventh grade group. A lot of good performers, but specifically I think this was a great time to do this show because these kids were the target audience when ‘Frozen’ first came out (in 2013). They were 3, 4 and 5 years old and now they’re middle schoolers. It’s the right time (to put on this show).”

Students practice about four days a week and expectations are high.

“We have really big expectations for this performance,” Forrest said. “We’re at the point where we’re polishing and perfecting things, adding in some effects to the show making sure everything looks as much as a big stage production as we possibly can. These are middle school kids, but they try to put on a show that goes beyond what anyone would expect for middle school.”

Dayeh said “Frozen Jr.” has a lot of songs from the main film and production, just slightly altered for a younger class.

“The story is the same. They just kind of downsize it a bit,” she said. “I believe the Broadway musical is around two hours. ‘Frozen Jr.’ runs about an hour. Some of the harmonies are simplified to accommodate for the age of the students. Sometimes (the movie) has around four and even five, six-part harmonies where as (this) has around two harmonies and sometimes three.”

The performance is not just about those on stage, but the ones who helped behind the scenes as well. Crews learned about lighting, set design, painting, costume and makeup among other tasks.

“It teaches more than just the music, dancing and acting,” Dayeh said. “That’s just the face that everybody sees. Behind the scenes they’re learning a whole lot of discipline, responsibility to know when they’re supposed to be at rehearsal, when they’re not called, when they’re supposed to be on stage. They’re stepping out of their comfort zone and helping each other out. Everyone has a role and it’s really cool to see all the kids come together and really embrace their role. They’re proud of this thing. It’s something that they did and it’s something they can say is theirs.”

This is Dayeh’s first year with the district, and her first time as music director.

“It’s extremely exciting,” she said about the upcoming show. “It feels like I should be nervous, but I’m not. I’ve been working with these inside the class and outside the class after school. I know how capable they are and how much fun they’re having. … I’m excited for them to put on a show they’ve been working so hard for.”

The cast and crew are hosting a character breakfast at the school cafeteria at 11 a.m. Nov. 13 before the matinee performance.

Breakfast attendees will be able to take photos with their favorite characters, sing along to their favorite songs, and enjoy a delicious breakfast of snowflake waffles. The character breakfast is a separately ticketed event with tickets going on sale at the Quaker Valley Middle School main office during normal school hours.

Tickets are $12 per child and $15 per adult.

The musical is also expected to be livestreamed to help reach a larger audience. More information is available at qvsd.org.