By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
When the pandemic cast its pall in 2020, the BGHS cast of “Disney’s The Little Mermaid” was told to pack up their flippers, leave the magic world created by Hans Christian Anderson and Disney behind, and enter the new world of pandemic lock down.
Maggie Titus, the thespian that she is, decided though that the show must go on. Titus was set to be the understudy for the Ariel the Mermaid of the title.
So, with the help of a friend, she staged her own version of “Little Mermaid.” In her backyard version she painted her face, so she was both the Mermaid and Price Eric. A friend was made up to be the court composer Sebastian and the evil witch Ursula.
Then she went on to stage “Shrek.” She was Shrek and Fiona, her friend Donkey and the evil Lord Farquaad.
They played to full “houses” for neighbors and family.
Three years later, Titus is back on a real stage as Ariel in the Bowling Green High School production of “Disney’s The Little Mermaid.” The musical has two more performances: tonight (April 1) at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Click for tickets.
[RELATED: BGHS staging ‘Little Mermaid’ three years after performance was scuttled by pandemic]
Also on stage for “Mermaid” is another friend and frequent fellow cast member, Whitney Bechstei, who plays Ursula.
The two seniors are wrapping up eventful school theatrical careers. In the past three years, they’ve played the female leads in each musical . Unusual, said Bechstein, for a theater program that tries to move leads around. But they have voices that will not be denied.
In 2021’s “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” Bechstein was Lucy and Titus was Sally. In last year’s “Legally Blonde,” Bechstein played Elle, and Titus played the feisty hairdresser Paulette.
“I don’t ever feel like we’re in competition,” Whitney said. “We’re just kind of buds who work off of each other.”
Their roles in “Little Mermaid” are a bit of a reversal.
Bechstein has most often played the female lead, the ingenue, in the musical.
Titus said she’d typically been cast as the “funny side character.” Titus was seen as “rough,” she said, “not a dainty princess.” Paulette was the epitome of that kind of role.
But when Titus starred as Belle in 3B’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” last summer, she showed she could pull off a Disney princess, and a few months later she and Bechstein were in the cast of Horizon Youth Theatre’s “Little Women,” with Titus playing the mother Marmee and Whitney as Meg, one of the March girls. And they moved on to take roles in the high school production of “Dracula” with Bechstein as Mrs. Dobrinski and Titus joining the onstage crew of Foley artists who provided sound effects.
“For both of us this past year we’ve been pushed to places that we’ve never thought were possible for us, and we’ve grown so much as performers,” Bechstein said.
The two actresses said while it’s nice to stage “Little Mermaid,” they would have been happy to get to do another show, since they’d already learned the Disney musical, even if it was never performed.
Both got their starts with Horizon Youth Theatre, though Titus began much earlier.
She remembers being cast as “a fawning girl” in a version of Robin Hood when she was 6. She went on to be a regular.That included a couple productions of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” once as Imogene, the eldest of the troublesome Herdman family.
But then she hit a spell where she wasn’t cast in three HYT productions. So instead, she explored community theater, with The Black Swamp Players, 3B, and the Waterville Playshop.
Bechstein was an avid athlete playing all manner of sports – volleyball, swimming, track , softball, cross-country, and bowling. Never basketball, she said. She resented that because she was tall, people typecast her as a basketball player.
She had always been singing but suffered from stage fright. Then in middle school a friend suggested she try out for HYT’s “Dorothy in Wonderland.” She was cast. She was hooked.
For her part, though, Titus hated sports. She did end up playing a couple seasons of soccer. She made a deal with her sister Emma Grisdale that if she played soccer, Grisdale would try out for the all-school musical. The best part for Titus was that the coach said if she sang the National Anthem, she’d get out of running some of the laps.
Drama teacher Jo Beth Gonzalez said Bechstein and Titus represent the class of students who went through the pandemic. When they returned with “Radium Girls”and “Charlie Brown” they had to wear masks on stage. That forced them to rely more on their eyes and body language to project their emotions. “Maggie and Whitney represent my full-circle COVID students – freshmen when (we) shut down, seniors when we are gaining a strong hold on normalcy. I hope that the challenges presented to them by COVID as performers has increased their skillset and strengthened their resolve to adapt and persevere.”
Gonzalez wrote that their experiences outside the school setting has been important. “There is also great value in being directed by someone outside of one’s high school theatre program, for those opportunities strengthen their ability to adapt to differences in style.”
Both Bechstein and Titus plan to continue their involvement in theater in college.
Bechstein will go to University of Toledo to major in Exercise Science with the goal of eventually becoming a physician’s assistant. She plans to minor in music.
Titus will attend Ohio Northern and major in musical theater with a minor in arts management.
The joy of theater is unlikely to loosen its grip on them.
“Honestly I just love playing characters,” Titus said. “It takes you out of your life which is kind of boring. It puts you in this fantastical situation that’s more interesting.
Though she admits it may sound egotistical, she adds: “I love the claps, the bows.”
“It almost euphoric,” Whitney said. “You just did all this hard work that you’ve been putting in for months, and then there’s people out there who appreciate it. That you made someone else’s day by doing something you love is the best feeling in the entire world.”
