- December 7, 2025
The court ladies lift up Queen Bean, played by Jaylen Walton. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Princess Beauty, played by Julia Ambrose, is accompanied onstage by her ladies, played by Alexandria Giles, Joy Perry, Rebekah Davis and Taylor McCall. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Drake Lee, Eric Weeks and Alex Foege play Princes Horatio, Braveheart and Billy. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
The witches perform a musical number. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
The faeries and members of court perform a musical number. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
The faeries and members of court perform a musical number. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Isaac Jordan and Gena La Torre play King Bumble and Steward. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Joy Perry spins as Lady Clara. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Jaylen Walton plays Queen Bea during the show. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Queen Bea and King Bumble, played by Jaylen Walton and Isaac Jordan, admire their infant daughter in presence of the court. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
The faeries, played by Lauren Hogan, Lillyana Bagamery, Eliza Dent and Isabella Digon, dance during a musical number. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Chrissy Alexander plays Queen Fairy Flora during the show. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Michelle Marie Lecza plays Scariebosse during the show. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Michelle Marie Lecza as Scariebosse poses with her witches, played by Zoe Harbuck, Maya Evans, Mahek Patel, Aeja Barrows, Jessa Ward and Sarah Lingo. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Maya Evans, Josh Lingo and Wesley Tankersley play princes during the show. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Double, double, toil and trouble has arrived at the Daytona Playhouse, as 36 local children take over the stage for the next two weekends for a comedy musical rendition of Sleeping Beauty.
Written and directed by Ormond Beach resident Kathy Thompson, this take on the classic fairy tale will engage audiences with humor, song and dance. The sassy Princess Beauty, played by Julia Ambrose, is faced with the dilemma of saving her kingdom by marrying the richest prince by the will of her ever-bickering parents, King Bumble and Queen Bea, played by Isaac Jordan and Jaylen Walton.
Playing a big role in the show are the witches. Alex Foege stars as Scariebosse, sister to Queen Fairy Flora, played by Chrissy Alexander. Ormond Beach resident Jessa Ward, 12, who plays one of the witches, said the show isn't your traditional fairy tale. She's excited for people to see what the cast has put together.
"It's definitely a very big twist on Sleeping Beauty," Ward said.
Sleeping Beauty also features four dancers from the European School of Performing Arts in Ormond Beach, all of which play fairies. One of them is 13-year-old Isabella Digon, and she said the cast and crew were very welcoming to the dancers in the show.
"I just felt like I had a new family from being here," Digon said.
This is Thompson's 11th children's show at the Daytona Playhouse after starting the program in 2009. Her husband challenged her to write a play after she was struggling to find a good children's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, and since then, it's been published and performed in different places in the United Kingdom. The play takes on a British pantomime approach, one that Thompson said will be fun for the whole family.
"When I retired, I always said I would come back to theater, which is my passion," Thompson said. "And I wanted to be sure to give kids in our community a chance of getting to perform here. So here I am."
