The 'Into The Woods' musical at Steinbach Regional Secondary School held their opening night on Wednesday.

Artistic director Eden Jamieson says 'Into The Woods' combines several familiar Disney stories and one of the biggest challenges they faced was in casting.

"We had over 70 kids sign up to audition for a show that has 21 roles. So, immediately we knew that we were going to have to run two casts for the show. That was a huge challenge."

Jamieson, along with the musical director Kristel Peters, they widdled the cast down to 36 students to be divided into two casts.

Mersadie Thiessen plays Cinderella in one of the casts. Thiessen says she was excited to have the opportunity to play this Disney princess.

"I was actually looking through photo albums recently and I actually found that I had a lot of Cinderella stuff and Cinderella pillows. I was like, wow, I guess I just fit the character since I was five. But when I was younger she was definitely one of my favourites."

Thiessen adds this musical gave her the opportunity to step out of her comfort zone and be challenged in the music and musicality of the production.

Daniel Funk plays Cinderella's prince. Funk says he hopes the audience leaves knowing more about the school and the artistic capabilities of the students.

"Getting the whole SRSS music department and drama department out there and letting people actually know what goes on behind these four walls of the SRSS. Letting them know there is more than studying and math and stuff like that, that goes on here."

Funk notes it was his first time wearing makeup. "I don't like having layers and layers on me, but apparently it looks good on me, so I'm told."

Shows run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.