Disney's The Little Mermaid Creative

Director

Mary Barth

Mary Barth began her career with the BHS drama club when she was 6 years old, performing as a clown in a Summer Family Theatre production of Barnum. During her high school years, Barth performed in many BHSDC productions, including: The Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, My Fair Lady and The Music Man (just to name a few). After BHS, she traveled for a year with Up With People, earned a BFA in Musical Theatre from Emerson College, received her Actor's Equity card while performing for three years at Disney World in Orlando, FL, and earned her MM in Music Education from Boston University. She will be forever grateful to John Sullivan and to the BHSDC for introducing her to the magic of the theatre. When the opportunity presented itself to step into the role of director, she was excited to be able to give back to the current BHS community! During the day, Mrs. Barth teaches music and directs the chorus here at Barnstable High School and when she's not in the theatre, you can find her having family fun with her husband and their two sons...usually at a sporting event!

Musical Director

Kris Lariviere Hill

Kris has an extensive history with the BHSDC beginning way back in 1983 when as a naive freshman, she began her career as a shrieking head in the Annual Haunted House. She continues that role today as the Music Director for Disney's The Little Mermaid. Between then and now, Kris appeared on stage in various roles with BHSDC, Barnstable Summer Family Theater, Barnstable Comedy Club, and the Cotuit Center for the Arts. In the summer of 1990, former BHSDC Artistic Director John Sullivan handed Kris the baton for the Velveteen Rabbit, and she’s waved it a lot ever since. Notable shows for which she has been music director include The Hobbit, The Wizard of Oz, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Mary Poppins, Newsies, and The Reluctant Dragon. Kris is an elementary music teacher in the Mashpee Schools. When not teaching, you’ll find her running ninja warrior obstacle courses with her son, Isaac. She is excited to be back with so many BHSDC alums on the creative team and her brother in the pit!

Artistic Producer

Molly Shanahan

Molly Shanahan is an English teacher here at BHS as well as a BHSDC alumni. She graduated from Dean College in 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Entertainment Management and an Associate’s Degree in Dance. Molly has choreographed a tap number in the last three BHSDC musicals of Mean Girls, Newsies and Mary Poppins. She has an extensive history with the BHSDC as both an actor and a member of the creative team. She is extremely excited to now be an artistic producer with the drama club! Outside of BHSDC, Molly also teaches tap at Arts Edge Dance Company. She is grateful to be back in her home away from home and have the opportunity to share her love of theater and dance with the newest BHSDC generation.

Choreographer

Brooke Styche

Brooke Styche grew up dancing on Cape Cod and is a Barnstable alum. After graduating from Trinity College with a major in Theater and Dance, she ran a dance studio in Pocasset. Missing academics and literature, she continued her post-grad work with an MAT and is now in her 21st year of teaching English at BHS. Never wanting to stop choreographing--one of her passions--she choreographed many musicals for Sandwich High School (where she began her career as an educator) including Grease, High School Musical, Bye Bye Birdie, Guys and Dolls, The Wiz, and The Sound of Music. She then started assisting BHSDC with choreography for She Loves Me and Pippin and was back for Shrek, Mary Poppins, Newsies and Mean Girls. Brooke has had so much fun working with the student performers on The Little Mermaid! She hopes that all of the students in the show know that she is so proud of their hard work and dedication--it is always a joy to watch students become dancers and find their legs (or fins)!

Creative Assistant

Kylee Youmans-Driskell

This is Kylee Youmans-Driskell's seventh musical working with BHSDC. Kylee has had a life-long passion for the performing arts. She was a competitive dancer from age 11 through college, and coached recreational and all-star competitive youth cheerleading on the Cape from 2012-2023. A former employee of Barnstable High School, Kylee is now the speech-language pathologist at Gateway ABA Therapy LLC in Wareham, and lives in Plymouth with her husband, daughter and their pets. She is thrilled to venture “under the sea” with BHSDC’s The Little Mermaid!

Original Creative Team

Alan Menken (Composer)

Theater: God Bless You Mr Rosewater, Little Shop Of Horrors, Real Life Funnies, Atina: Evil Queen Of The Galaxy, Kicks, The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz, Beauty And The Beast, A Christmas Carol, Weird Romance, King David, Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, Sister Act, Leap Of Faith, Aladdin and Newsies. Film: Little Shop Of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, Newsies, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Hercules, Life With Mikey, Lincoln, Home On The Range, Noel, Enchanted, Shaggy Dog, Tangled and Mirror Mirror. Songs: Rocky V, Home Alone 2 and Captain America. Awards: 8 Oscars (19 nominations), 11 Grammys (including Song of the Year), 7 Golden Globes, Tony® (plus 4 nominations), Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, New York Drama Critics, Olivier and London's Evening Standard Award, Drama League. Honors: Songwriter's Hall of Fame, Doctorates from New York University and University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Howard Ashman (Lyricist)

Best known as a pivotal creative mind behind the renaissance of Disney animation and his work on The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast (which is dedicated to, "Our friend, Howard Ashman, who gave a Mermaid her voice and a Beast his soul...") Ashman's first love was theater. Ashman was a founder of off off Broadway's renowned WPA Theater, where he conceived, wrote and directed God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, as well as the classic musical, Little Shop of Horrors (both music by Alan Menken). In 1986, he wrote and directed the Broadway musical Smile (music by Marvin Hamlisch). Lamented as a lost treasure of the 1980's theater scene, Smile remains popular on High School and College campuses throughout the country. Howard Ashman died in 1991 from complications of AIDS. For more information, please visit howardashman.com.

Glenn Slater (Lyricist)

Slater co-created Disney's 2010 worldwide smash Tangled (2011 Grammy Winner, 2010 Oscar and Golden Globe nominee), as well as the Broadway and international hit musicals Sister Act (2011 Tony nominee - Best Score) and The Little Mermaid (2008 Tony nominee - Best Score, Grammy nominee - Best Cast Album), and, most recently School of Rock (2015). With longtime collaborator Alan Menken, he is Executive Producer and Lyricist for the ABC-TV musical comedy series Galavant, and has also written songs for the Disney animated film Home On The Range (2004) and the Broadway musical Leap of Faith (Tony nominee - Best Musical, 2012). In the West End, Glenn provided both book and lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies (2010 Olivier nominee - Best Musical), the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. Other work includes an Emmy-nominated song for the ABC-TV comedy The Neighbors (2013), and the stage revue Newyorkers at The Manhattan Theatre Club (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations). Glenn is the recipient of the prestigious Kleban Award for Lyrics, the ASCAP/Richard Rogers New Horizons Award, and the Jonathan Larson Award. He is an alumnus of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, and a member of both ASCAP and the Dramatists' Guild.

Doug Wrights (Librettist)

GLAAD Media Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama League Award and a Lucille Lortel Award for I Am My Own Wife. His screen adaptation of Quills was named Best Picture by the National Board of Review and nominated for three Academy Awards. Doug was cited by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and awarded the Tolerance Prize from the Kulturforum Europa. Currently, he serves on the board of the New York Theatre Workshop and serves as Secretary on the Dramatists Guild Council.

Works include: Interrogating the Nude (1988), Quills (1995), Unwrap Your Candy (2001), I Am My Own Wife (2003), Grey Gardens (book) (2006), The Little Mermaid (book) (2007), The Pavilion (2009).