“The Girl With the Golden Locks” is the play that got away from the Brookfield Drama Club.

The school-aged thespians were supposed to perform the Brian Taylor play in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown canceled it two weeks before opening night, said drama club adviser Megan Rodgers.

The club has regained some of the momentum it lost during the shutdown and has about 30 kids ready to work – enough to fill out the large cast of “The Girl With the Golden Locks,” which will be staged at 7 pm. March 23-25 at the high school.

Two actors will play the roles they were supposed to fill in 2020, and several others return in new roles.

“I think the audience is gonna have fun with it,” said junior Heather Donaldson, who plays a tech fairy. “They’re gonna laugh.”

The play follows agents of the Fairy Tale Bureau of Intelligence as they pursue a mission that brings them in contact with characters from “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Puss and Boots,” “Billy Goat’s Gruff” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

“There’s just a lot of really fun things,” said senior Sierra Panner. “It’s not quite the Disney tellings of these stories, but not quite the Brothers Grimm, either. It’s kind of like a happy medium between the two.”

Sierra plays Chief Granny. “She has anger issues and a crippling caffeine addiction,” Sierra said.

“The Girl With the Golden Locks” will be Sierra’s third “successful” play, a reference to the 2020 cancellation.

“I really like acting and being on stage and pretending to be another person for a day or a night,” she said.

Others have noticed how much she likes it.

“The week after the play, I was going to grocery stores with my mom and I was having people come up to me and just being like, ‘Oh, my gosh. You did so good in the play,’” she said.

Even recently, a woman who had seen her last year approached her at work “and asked if I was being in drama again and told me I did a really good job last year and she’s excited to see me this year.”

Heather said her dance class rehearsals had gotten in the way of participating in past plays, but a change in her schedule allowed her to act in this one, her first play.

“I’m already used to the stage and stage directions,” she said. “That’s been a little bit easier. It’s nerve-wracking knowing that you’re gonna be talking to an audience and you’re not gonna have what you’re reading in front of you.”

The play includes students in grades five through 12.

“It’s interesting because there are people who are older than me and people who are way younger,” Heather said. “It’s kind of weird interacting with such young middle schoolers but, at the same time, they’re doing their part well and they’re working, also.”

Admission is $5 and tickets will be sold at the door.

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