Highlands musical workshop aims to inspire a love for performing arts

For Mason Neal, going to school on a Saturday was good.

“Actually, it was great,” said Mason, 9, a fourth grader in Highlands School District. “It was really fun.”

Mason was among about 80 Highlands elementary and middle school students who participated in a workshop with the high school cast of this year’s musical, Disney’s “Descendants: The Musical.”

It was the biggest group of students to take part in the workshop, a fundraiser supporting the production that started in 2017, musical Director Michael Zeiler said. There’s usually about 50.

“You want to be able to teach a younger generation and inspire a love for the performing arts and a passion to be on stage,” he said. “We become a family.”

Zeiler attributed this year’s turnout to the popularity of the show, which he said was chosen in part to mark Disney’s 100th anniversary, which was Oct. 16.

While it’s the third most requested musical in the nation, he said Highlands is the only high school in the Pittsburgh area performing it this year.

Based on the Disney Channel original movies, “Descendants: The Musical” features the teenage children of Maleficent, the Evil Queen, Jafar and Cruella de Vil who are sent to attend prep school alongside the children of beloved Disney heroes.

It has all of the music from the first movie and includes music from the second and third.

“There’s not a bad song in the entire show,” Zeiler said.

The students, in second through eighth grade, were taught the vocals and choreography for two of the musical’s songs, “Rotten to the Core” and “Did I Mention,” which they performed on stage with members of the high school cast for their parents in the audience.

Kimberly Patterson’s elder daughter, Felicia, 15, is in the “Descendants” cast and attended the workshop before. Her younger daughter, Diana, 11, attended the workshop for the first time.

“Diana loves to sing and she loves to dance,” said Patterson of Harrison. “She wanted to see what the big kids are doing.”

Senior Lily Biernesser, 18, portrays Mal, the daughter of Maleficent. She attended one of the workshops herself when she was younger, and is now in her fourth high school production.

“It’s really great to see a ton of kids so interested in musicals like this,” she said. “To see them have fun with it is really awesome.”

While Zeiler told the young students that being in the musical is hard work for the cast members, who also need to keep up with their academics, Mason found their crash course in the two numbers not that taxing.

“They said it took them two months to do it, but it took us 50 minutes,” he said.

Third grader Vera Massaros, 9, saw last year’s musical, “The Addams Family,” and has seen all three Descendants movies. This was her first time at the workshop.

“I really like musicals and acting. I just like to dance and sing,” Vera said, adding that she enjoyed learning the choreography the most. “It was very good. It was very fun.”

This year’s workshop was the second for sixth grader Suzanna Millen, 11.

“It’s a very fun program,” she said.

When she’s old enough to be in the high school musical herself, Suzanna hopes she gets to perform in “Beauty and the Beast.”

“I always liked it,” she said. “It would be fun to do as a musical.”