“Little Mermaid” will be swimming its way into the theatre Feb. 15-18, but this time with a relatively small cast.

Over the past few years, most shows consisted of 40 or more cast members but starting last year director Mark Swezey decided to cut the cast in order to have more individualized time to work through scenes and give actors the opportunity to play multiple roles in a show.

“…the quality tends to really become important because these people, the normal chorus say in a show like ‘Les Mis’, which were probably 25-30, all of a sudden is scaled down to a much smaller group so the level of quality really goes up,” Swezey said.

“Little Mermaid” had around 70 people audition and from that cut around 30 people for callbacks. There were 45 people called back for roles in the show and from those 45 people, only 30 were chosen to actually participate in the show.

This decision to cut more people gives the department a more competitive edge and allows people to step up their performance and give their auditions everything they have.

“I think this will affect it in a positive way…the quality of the performer is really top notch, we ended up cutting some people that probably would’ve been cast in a cast of 50,” Swezey said .”

The show will consist of seven shows, two of which will be matinees for students in the district. Doors open at 7 p.m. and shows start at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and tickets are free with a student ID and $10 for adults.