Pequea Valley seventh- and eighth-grade performing arts students will present "Aladdin Jr." as their spring musical. Performances, which will take place at the Pequea Valley Secondary School, will be held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 26, 27 and 28, at 7 p.m. There will also be a Saturday matinee on March 28 at 2 p.m.

Director Alicia Trescavage, who is the music educator and choral director at Paradise and Salisbury elementary schools, noted that the play will finally be brought to the stage after it had to be canceled because of the pandemic. It is also being staged for the first time at the district's new secondary school.

"We were supposed to do the play in 2020, and we shut down a week before and that never happened," she noted. "We did have three of the set pieces in storage from 2020. When we came back, I was able to add more scenery and make it more grand because we have more space. From a designing aspect, that was fun."

"The interesting thing was going back and reflecting on what we did - we had time to talk about what we could do differently with costuming and scene changes," said Trescavage.

The show is based on the Broadway musical, but it shares the same story, music and characters as the 1992 animated movie, including Aladdin, played by Jack Abrahamsen; Jasmine, played by Aria Byler; Genie, played by Vivian Hober; Jafar, played by Weston Lapp; Sultan, played by Peter Tyrrell; and Iago, played by Alex Whiteside. The musical's additional characters are Babkak, played by Austin Hofmann; Omar, played by Isabella Phillips; and Kassim, played by Miranda Hober.

" 'Aladdin Jr.' was based on the movie. There are songs in the show that are not in the movie," Trescavage pointed out. "There are more main characters. (For example), Jasmine has a different song in the play with her friends and attendants."

"It's a very fun show, even if you don't know the musical version," she added.

There are 33 cast members in this year's show, most of whom have seen the movie and online versions of the Broadway musical. "I do want them to find their own character, but you are also playing well-established characters like Jafar, who is the bad guy," Trescavage noted. "You have to figure out what makes the character your own."

She noted that the cast and crew are adjusting to the new and larger stage at the secondary school. "There is more that we can do because there is more space," said Trescavage. "The stage is much larger. It's about 10 feet longer on each side. We have fly space above so we can have scenery and backgrounds that can come down."

The new facility has storage space on the sides of the stage, allowing sets to be brought easily onto the stage. There are also separate prop areas and set-building areas.

"Our items were stored in three different buildings: props and sets were at Salisbury, costumes at the old middle school and (other items were) at the old high school," she said. "Now, we have a dedicated building area to build and paint (sets). It is streamlined. Everyone is not in each other's way."

She said that having the new school has also allowed for more rehearsal times for the students, who used to perform the play at the former Pequea Valley High School. "We split time with the high school show. We rehearsed in the cafeteria while the high school rehearsed in the auditorium or choral room," she noted. "Once the high school show was finished, we moved to the stage."

This will also be Trescavage's final play as director, as she is retiring after the school year. "This is my 30th year of teaching, 20th year at Pequea and 18th year directing the show. This will my first and last time to be in the new space," she said. "Leaving teaching will be hard, but leaving the musical will be very hard."

Pequea Valley Secondary School is located at 164 S. New Holland Road, Kinzers. Tickets will be sold at the door. To purchase tickets in advance, visit https://events.hometownticketing.com/boxoffice/pequeavalley.