Issue date: 8/30/07 Section: A&E

Media Credit: Steve Berry Audri Lucasey plays Susan, left, and Gwyneth Cross plays Lucy in "Narnia, the Musical."

A group of children will climb through a wardrobe and into another world of lions and witches on the Dunham Hall stage beginning Thursday night.

Curtain's Up, a not-for-profit community theater company, is using the Dunham Hall Theater to perform "Narnia, The Musical." The show is based on the best-selling novel by C.S. Lewis, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe."

Although Curtain's Up is not directly affiliated with SIUE theater, some of "Narnia"'s starring roles are played by SIUE students. Sophomore Matt Wilmsmeyer plays the hero of the story, a lion named Aslan.

"With the Aslan role, this is the first time I've gotten a principal role," Wilmsmeyer said. "I was so excited about it I was dancing around. It's a lot of work, a lot more than normal, but it's a lot more enjoyable."

SIUE musical theater major Stephanie Long plays Aslan's nemesis, the White Witch.

"I started (performing) my freshman year in high school and have been doing one or two or three shows a year since," Long said.

For Long, theater is something that comes naturally.

"I love doing shows," Long said. "Being on the stage is what I love doing…just to have something to do, being out there, being social, being on the stage and to be singing."

"Narnia" is Long's first experience with Curtain's Up.

"I've had an awesome time with this group of people," Long said. "I've never worked with a theater group so welcoming and so understanding. They are just warm people all around and are awesome to work with. I just love it."

Jessica Bell, the director of "Narnia", is also no stranger to the stage.

"I was involved in the last show (Curtain's Up) did, 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'," Bell said. "I was the wife of Dan, (a character in the play) and they found out that they didn't have a music director at the last minute so I took over music directing as well as being in the show and got involved in the board. They asked me to be in (this) show."

For Bell, the decision to do the show was simple.

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