The Brook Hill School’s Fine Arts department is beginning the preparation stages for its annual spring musical, which will be “Annie,” with dates set for May 10, 11, and 12, and an encore performance on the 18, at a discounted price.

The performance this year is unique in the fact that it will not only feature Brook Hill Upper School students, but will also feature middle schoolers and sixthgraders.

Allie Lake, a sixth-grader, will be playing the lead role of Annie. Glenn Ballard, in his 14th year as the director of Fine Arts at Brook Hill, called Lake “petite, but with a powerful stage presence and a great vocal range.”

Junior Bailey Franklin will be playing Daddy Warbucks. Franklin, a veteran of Brook Hill’s drama program, played Curley in last year’s performance of “Oklahoma,” Mereb in the Elton John musical “Aida,” and Ross in the “Sound of Music.” Ballard called Franklin an experienced young actor.

Bailey will follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Cody, and shave his head for the role. Cody shaved his head for the school’s performance of “The King and I.”

“We just began preparations,” Ballard said. “We posted the cast last Thursday, and started our read-throughs on Tuesday. We’re mainly trying to just get the cast members acquainted with the story, right now. My job is to have a unifying vision for the play. We have to add the component of life experience, and get the cast members to understand the emotional components of the script.”

The cast boasts a number of 27 members to be playing 36 roles.

“I did that on purpose,” Ballard said. “We wanted to get as many students involved as possible, yet still maintain a strong cast.”

Ballard said he was in a unique position, where he was able to bring some “very talented” middle schoolers up to work along what he called their “high school mentors.” Ballard will be working with Jill Swink as choreographer on their fifth collaboration together, and Patti Eden as music director on their 13th collaboration.

“ We are starting early this year,” he said. “ We are working with youngsters this year and want them to have plenty of time to get ready. We have two weeks off in March and several competitions that will take away from our preptime, but our goal is to be ‘ Broadway- ready.’”