On April 20 and 21 Independence High School presented their own take on the classic story of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” directed by Heather Brandon.

Friday night’s performance had a full house; filled with endless applauses, laughs, and cheers all night long.

Act I introduced Ariel (Emma Taber), a 16-year-old mermaid who has everything, but at the same time feels empty because she felt there was always something missing in her life. With that came the desire to one day be able to experience a human life on earth.

On one of her many visits to the surface with her best friend Flounder (Tori Robertson), which is forbidden by her over controlling father King Triton (Nate Vega), she falls head over heels for human Prince Eric (Dylan Whitaker).

While she is away on her trip to the surface, back at the castle, spontaneous Sebastian the crab (Aron Clugston) is getting the royal sisters ready for their performance for their father for a future event. When they realize their youngest sister is missing, they begin to express how annoyed they are with how she does whatever she wants, and King Triton lets her get away with it.

After facing the consequences of missing rehearsal, Ariel goes off to her secret room where she keeps her human treasures, as she sings “The World Above” she fantasies of the day when she can finally walk the earth.

Days go by and Ariel makes her daily trips to the surface. On this occasion, a huge storm puts in danger the life of Prince Eric and his crew members. As he falls over board Ariel comes to his rescue and Eric begins to awaken his hears the beautiful voice of his savor; after that he is determined to find the girl with the angelic voice.

It became more obvious to those around Ariel that she was in love. When they discovered it was actually with a human word got back to her father. Furious with the news, he demands that Ariel to stay away from him. King Triton expressed why his hatred for humans was so strong, it is because he believes they were the reason for Ariel’s mother’s death.

Furious with her father’s unfairness and lack of trying to understand her, Ariel turns to the dark side for help. Her evil aunt Ursula (Cecilia Esquivel) makes a deal with her she couldn’t refuse, in exchange for her to become human Ariel had to give up her voice. There was a twist to her deal though, in order to remain human, she had three days to get the prince to fall in love with her and kiss her to seal the deal. If she failed, she would have to spend the rest of her days in the undersea with her evil aunt.

Act II begins with Ariel transformed into a human lying on the beach, as Prince Eric comes to her rescue taking her back to his castle to take care of her.

Days go by and even though she cannot speak that doesn’t stop Eric from falling in love with her but is too shy to make a move.

With time running out Sebastian tries to help Ariel get that kiss, but of course Ursula butts in and stops the kiss from happening.

A ball is held to find a future wife for Prince Eric. The catch is to find out who was the girl with the angelic voice that saved his life. Several princesses try to sing their way to his heart but all fail to impress him.

As Ariel is about to sing she fails as well because she is still missing her voice, at that moment Ursula emerges to take Ariel. A fight emerges between the two as Ariel is able to rip off Ursula’s neck a shell necklace that contained her voice, as she breaks it her voice is restored and Ursula is destroyed.

Before she was destroyed Ursula confessed she was the one who killed Ariel’s mother out of jealousy.

Now knowing this King Triton sees how wrong he was about humans and finally accepts his daughter’s wishes of living a human life and grants his blessing for her to live happy life on earth with the love of her life Prince Eric.

During the singing number “Under the Sea” cast members went out into the audience to pick out some of the guests to dance and sing along with.

“I loved how we were able to sing along to our favorite songs, brings back a lot of childhood memories” audience member Jennifer Ruiz said.

Anallely Sayas another guest, said “This is by far one of the best performances I have ever seen, it made me feel like I was watching the original Disney version you need mad talent to be able to do that, which they had I  loved every minute of it.”