SMS Students to Bring “Beauty” to Life

By Grace Pearson, Sanford High School senior

SMS Theater Troupe will be presenting performances of “Beauty and the Beast” from 7:30-8:30 pm on Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3 at the Sanford Performing Arts Center.  

The show is an adaptation of the Disney film of the same name. It follows a young woman named Belle who dreams of living a better life, and the Beast, a prince cursed by an enchantress. The only way for the Beast to break the curse is to fall in love and be loved by that person in return. However, time is running out, and if the Beast cannot break the curse, then he and his household will remain cursed forever.

The show focuses on looking past appearances to find beauty, self-discovery, kindness and sacrifice. 

The lead role of Belle will be played by eighth grader Miranda Payeur, whose favorite song from the show is “Belle Reprise.” 

One of Payeur’s favorite things about theater is all the people she gets to meet. “Everyone is so nice, and you make friendships that you wouldn’t have otherwise, and it’s somewhere you can just be yourself,” she said. 

“The kids that work with us, oftentimes walk onto the stage thinking one thing about themselves and leave thinking something totally different,” said director and middle school teacher Adam Bellefeuille, who has been directing for 16 years. “They walk on thinking, ‘Oh, there’s no way I can do this, there’s no way I can do that.’ And then through the process, they figure out that there are actually doors where they thought there were walls. They figure out a way to accomplish things that they couldn’t possibly do at the beginning, and they figure out a way to get around those obstacles in a format that very few other opportunities provide.”

“I would say my favorite part is watching the process unfold, and a lot of people say, ‘How do you do it?’ and the answer is really, I don’t, I get out of the way,” said Bellefeuille. “I simply watch. I put the kids on stage, and I watch the magic happen.” 

Bellefeuille has two favorite songs from the show. “I’m partial to the dramatic moments, I’m partial to moments that build the audience’s emotion, and take them on a ride, and probably the best roller coaster ride in this show is a song called ‘Home,’” he said. “Then for a more traditional, peppy kind of number, I really enjoy ‘Belle.’”

Bellefeuille, like the other cast and crew members, is incredibly busy. Bellefeuille takes care of scheduling, communicating with parents and school departments and facilities, making sure that tickets are on sale and talking to the people who do the ticket sales. 

“I would not even attempt to put an hour on it because it would probably scare me if I did,” he said. “Up until March, we were going two days a week. We switched over to three in March, and now we’re pretty much every day. So, it picks up dramatically.” Outside of rehearsals, students with larger roles have to work on memorizing lines, dances and songs.

“I could not be more proud of the students, all of them, cast and crew, that we’ve been privileged enough to work with this year. And I am grateful to every single family, every single parent, grandparent, neighbor, whatever it might be, that’s contributed to this show either through getting their kids here on time, financial donations, which we’ve had so many financial donations this year,” Bellefeuille said. “And I’m also very grateful to the school department, administration, and my colleagues for allowing me to pursue this passion, that becomes a little bit involved at this point in the process.”

He says the play will give audiences “an opportunity to unplug from the rest of the world and to see what happens when you put 45 middle school kids into a room and let them drive. We’re going to take them on a roller coaster ride through a show that many people have seen before, but it’s a little bit different because you’re dealing with younger performers, and the emotion that comes with that performance will definitely leave them satisfied.” 

Tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for students and seniors. Tickets can be bought at the door on the night of the show with cash only or at the Sanford Middle School office with either check or cash.