This year’s BNI drama department’s annual spring musical play, “Once Upon a Mattress”, will make its debut on April 17. The play takes on the famous fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea, where the princess is unable to sleep on a bed of mattresses with a tiny pea placed under the bottom mattress.

   Mrs. Kayla Konkle, theater director, picked this play to coincide with this year’s theatre department’s theme of “Fairy Tales & Fables”. She says “Once Upon a Mattress” is a funny and a classic play and great for all audiences. In the kingdom, Queen Agravian says no one can get married until Prince Dauntless is married to a true princess of Royal blood. The Queen tests the eligibility of eleven applicants with impossible tests devised by her. 

   “The goal is to showcase a universal production that encourages a younger audience to feel as though it is possible for them to do or be a part of a show of their own one day,” Konkle says.

   Senior Nora Wragg will be playing Winnifred the Woebegone, a princess from the swamp who is tested to marry the prince. Wragg prepares for her roles by getting energetic and warming up her voice. 

   “I have done a good amount of shows, but I still do get anxious. It’s part of performing though, you can’t really have a good show if you don’t have any energy, and the adrenaline of performing keeps up all hyped up,” Wragg says.

   She is excited to for the audience reactions, music, and costumes. The play will be presented April 17-19 and there will be a special performance for children at feeder schools the following week.