The Harry Potter series spoof, “Sally Cotter and the Prisoner of Ala Katraz,” will debut on campus Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Middle school production preparations kicked off last week with the cast having its first rehearsals. Theater Director Maureen Fallon faces the task of preparing the cast for its performance in less than a month, immediately after the completion of the all-school musical performance of “The Music Man.”

“I love doing shows, so to go from one to the other, it doesn’t bother me at all,” Fallon said. “Once a show opens, I get to the first or second performance of the show and I’m ready to go on to the next one.”

This play is a sequel to the first “Sally Cotter” performance (“Sally Cotter and the Censored Stone”), and there is also a part three.

“I’m always looking for good material for middle school plays,” Fallon said. “We had so much fun doing it [last year]. I figured ‘Oh my gosh, there’s three years of shows right there.’”

The show experiences changes this year with new faces, new casting and more than 40 students participating. Previous eighth graders will not be returning to the show, as they are now in high school.

“No one who was in the show last year, who is in the show this year, has the same role that they had,” Fallon said. “Everything got changed around. Last year [Sally Cotter] was Madison Mills, and I liked the personality. Adalynn [J.’s] personality is a little bit different. Sometimes when you look at the whole cast and you look at the other people that you’re casting, you want to make sure that that person is going to work well.”

The theater department faced the reveal of the cast list recently, with eighth-grader Adalynn J. receiving the role of Sally Cotter.

“There was this whole mob of people around [the cast list],” Adalynn said. “But my friend Harry came out of the mob of people and he told me ‘Adalynn, you got Sally Cotter’. Later he told me that my face turned white and then red, and then I just sat down because I had no idea. I thought I was just going to get a background character or something, but I seriously had no idea. I sat down for a straight five minutes, and then I went and called my mother.”

Adalynn participated in the the school’s previous performances of “The Music Man,” “Peter Pan Jr.,” “Sally Cotter and the Censored Stone,” and “Oliver.” This will be her first experience in a lead role, and will be met with some challenges.

“Well mostly I just got to be careful and make sure that I memorize all of my lines, that’s the big thing, and make sure that I don’t get sick,” Adalynn said. “Another thing is that I’ve got to remember to always be acting, because there are only a couple of times where I don’t actually have lines that I’m saying, but I have to be acting on stage at the same time. So that will be a real challenge for me because I’m trying to figure out what my next line is, so I need to be able to just go with it.”

Adalynn, Fallon and the remainder of the cast have less than four weeks to prepare for the show.

“The most I look forward to is probably just having fun and finding out how it is to have a lead role,” Adalynn said. “This is a great experience for me.”

By Sophia Bailly

Editor’s note: Brevard Public Schools policy prohibits the inclusion of middle-schoolers’ last names on district websites.