The production is set to be performed on May 18 and 19, according to Reed teacher Gina Swanson.

This year the fifth and sixth grade hopefuls auditioned on separate days after school. Sixth graders were up first on Tuesday.

“I really like singing and participating,” said sixth grader Cristina Trabanco, one of the roughly 40 students who auditioned that day.

Next to her, Haley Isdale said she wanted to try out, just because.

“I really want to be anybody,” said Haley, adding she has a preference for the part of Mrs Potts, a helpful motherly figure who is in the form of a teapot in the story.

Beauty and the Beast Jr is a 60-minute adaptation of Disney’s movie, released in 1991, that tells story of an inventor’s daughter who becomes a captive in a beast’s castle.

Down the hallway, Matty Murphy said he wanted to try out for the play for a chance to feel “famous, almost.”

Next to him, sixth grader Brooks Petershack said he has performed in three plays.

“My dream is to be an actor on a stage or a screen,” said Brooks.

Brooks added when he learned the school’s production of Beauty and the Beast Jr, he thought, “Why not?”