{"id":12902,"date":"2026-03-10T17:07:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-middle-school-students-to-perform-disneys-frozen-jr-this-weekend\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:33:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:33:42","slug":"cortez-middle-school-students-to-perform-disneys-frozen-jr-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-middle-school-students-to-perform-disneys-frozen-jr-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez Middle School students to perform Disney\u2019s \u2018Frozen Jr.\u2019 this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The cast and crew of Cortez Middle School will present three showings of \u201cFrozen Jr.\u201d March 13 and 14. (Photo courtesy of Angela Gabardi)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez Middle School theater students will bring the magic of Arendelle to the stage with performances of Disney\u2019s \u201cFrozen Jr.,\u201d a junior adaptation of the popular movie and Broadway musical, this weekend.<\/p>\n

Performances are at 7 p.m. Friday, March 13, and at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, March 14.<\/p>\n

The play features 65 cast and crew members from sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The middle schoolers have been preparing for nearly nine weeks, following auditions in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrozen Jr.\u201d follows sisters Anna, played by Kanyin Palmer, and Elsa, played by Kinsley Decker, along with familiar characters Olaf (Afton Nielson), Kristoff (Gordon Phillips), Sven (Ariane Camis) and Hans (Zane Hermann).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best part, as always, are the kids,\u201d CMS theater teacher and director Angela Gabardi told The Journal<\/em>. \u201cIt is pure magic to see what they can do. This is a show that came out when they were all really little, and it has been so cool to see them bring these characters and this world to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The musical also includes well-known and well-loved songs from the movie like \u201cLet It Go\u201d and \u201cFixer Upper\u201d by Kristoff\u2019s troll family (known as Hidden Folk in this version), while adding other numbers like \u201cHygge\u201d from Oaken (Grace Marlatt). A snow dance chorus has also been added to enhance Elsa\u2019s magical moments on stage.<\/p>\n

Gabardi said \u201cFrozen Jr.\u201d was chosen after students expressed interest, and she later announced it as the spring musical selection at a club meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that ever since I was a little girl I would always watch Elsa and dance around as if I was in the movie, and now that I am acting it out to Cortez it brings me so much joy,\u201d Camis, playing Sven, said. \u201cI am mostly excited to see how the little kids react to the magic we present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technical aspects, including the set, costumes, props, lighting and sound, are expected to impress audiences. The acting and singing by the middle schoolers are also highlights, with Gabardi saying she and the other teachers \u201cget chills every night\u201d watching.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beautiful set and costumes, to the creative props, lights and sound \u2013 the technical elements of this show are going to impress the audience,\u201d Gabardi said. \u201cThe acting and singing is outstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linnea Merritt, playing Young Elsa, echoed Gabardi.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe ready for an emotional roller coaster when you attend on March 13th or 14th,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Assistant stage manager Eliza Martineau said she is grateful for the way the middle school theater students embraced one another throughout rehearsals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m most proud of is how far we\u2019ve not only come as a show, but as people. \u2026 Be we divided into our crew positions and character though, it was clear that people became more comfortable and felt less out of place,\u201d Martineau said. \u201cI\u2019m proud that everyone in this group created a safe place for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets are $6, with children age 2 and younger admitted free. RE-1 staff and one guest, as well as Montezuma-Cortez High School drama students and middle school students, also receive free admission.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow amazing is it that our community has such dedicated, talented and creative kids,\u201d Gabardi said. \u201cThis is a chance to let the youth of Cortez inspire you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets can be purchased at https:\/\/bit.ly\/CMSFrozenJr.<\/a> The show is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

70 middle school students are participating in the production<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[363,1060,21,147,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-12902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-middle-school","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12902"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18716,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12902\/revisions\/18716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12902"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=12902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}