Weston Drama Workshop, a nonprofit youth theater organization in its 59th season, will stage eight productions this month at Regis College, featuring participants entering Grade 6 through age 23. All eight casts have been hard at work rehearsing for these productions since early June, and will perform at the Regis Fine Arts Center between July 15 and July 31. With over 30 performances in the span of a jam-packed three weeks, Weston Drama Workshop continues its long-standing tradition of providing the MetroWest community and beyond with quality youth theater.

WDW’s younger ensemble—participants in the Morning Program and the Afternoon Program—will perform three productions: Disney’s Descendants: The Musical, a brand-new musical comedy based on the popular Disney Channel Original Movies; Disney’s The Lion King, Jr.; and Beware the Jabberwock, a play set in the fantasy world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories. Descendants and The Lion King, Jr. are directed by Aidan O’Hara, while Beware the Jabberwock is directed by Callie Llewellyn. The casts include Wayland residents Cooper Walton (Coach in Descendants), Marisa Beard (Rafiki in The Lion King, Jr.), Alice Cotman Jenkins (Banzai in The Lion King, Jr.), Weston Dietzius (Ed in The Lion King, Jr.), Ella Malee (Ensemble in The Lion King, Jr.), Meredith Schuh (Timon in The Lion King, Jr. and Lucy in Beware the Jabberwock), and Kira Schuh (Ensemble in Beware the Jabberwock).

The program’s older ensemble, ages 14-23, will perform three main stage musicals, one black box play, and one outdoor play. Audiences will travel backwards in time against the backdrop of a moving Sondheim score in Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Nick Oberstein; explore the world of Bikini Bottom in The SpongeBob Musical, based on the popular Nickelodeon series and directed by Chris Brindley; follow a son’s investigation of his father’s larger-than-life tales in Big Fish, based on the acclaimed novel and film and directed by Skylar Grossman; experience Mary Zimmerman’s retelling of Ovid’s myths in Metamorphoses, directed by Tristan Burke; and hear the story of Mowgli and friends in The Jungle Book, an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s enchanted tale, performed under the stars and directed by Stephanie Manning. Among the young actors performing in these five productions are Wayland residents Harrison Dietzius (Eugene H. Krabs in SpongeBob), Anika Reichelt (Leader of the Monkeys and other roles in The Jungle Book), and Kaiyang Zhang (3rd Man in Metamorphoses).

Several Wayland residents are also involved in technical aspects of the season. Anika Reichelt is the Assistant Scenic Designer for the season, Brennan Davies is a lighting & sound intern, Madeline Maurer is a Stage Management Intern (Spongebob), Bec Patsenker is a directing intern (Merrily We Roll Along).  Also, Wayland High School drama teacher Aidan O’Hara is the director for both Lion King and The Descendants.

Tickets are available at westondramaworkshop.org/online-tickets-home, and questions can be directed to the box office at 781-768-7070. Most performances are held at Regis College’s Fine Arts Center; venues will be at two-thirds capacity, and masks will be required for audience members. The Jungle Book will perform on an outdoor stage elsewhere on the Regis campus.

The performance schedule is as follows (available on the WaylandeNews calendar online here):

Disney’s Descendants: The Musical: Saturday, July 24th at 10:30am; Monday, July 26th at 7:30pm; Thursday, July 29th at 10:30am; Saturday, July 31st at 10:30am.

Disney’s The Lion King, Jr.: Sunday, July 25th at 10:30am; Monday, July 26th at 5:00pm; Wednesday, July 28th at 10:30am; Saturday, July 31st at 1:00pm.

Beware the Jabberwock: Sunday, July 18th at 10:30am; Wednesday, July 21st at 5:00pm; Sunday, July 25th at 2:00pm; Thursday, July 29th at 5:00pm.

The SpongeBob Musical: Sunday, July 18th at 7pm; Friday, July 23rd at 8pm; Sunday, July 25th at 7pm; Saturday, July 31st at 8pm.

Merrily We Roll Along: Friday, July 16th at 8pm; Wednesday, July 21st at 8pm; Saturday, July 24th at 8pm; Thursday, July 29th at 8pm.

Big Fish: Saturday, July 17th at 8pm; Thursday, July 22nd at 8pm; Tuesday, July 27th at 8pm; Friday, July 30th at 8pm.

Metamorphoses: Thursday, July 22 at 7:30pm; Saturday, July 24 at 2:00pm; Sunday, July 25 at 7:30pm; Wednesday, July 28 at 9pm; Friday, July 30 at 7:30pm; Saturday, July 31 at 7:30pm.

The Jungle Book: Thursday, July 15th at 8pm; Sunday, July 18th at 8pm; Tuesday, July 20th at 8pm; Friday, July 23rd at 8:30pm; Tuesday, July 27th at 8:30pm; Friday, July 30th at 8:30pm.