photo by: John Young

Mark Mancini and Amy Nystrom run through a scene during a dress rehearsal for Theatre Lawrence's upcoming production of The Little Mermaid on Wednesday night. The show premieres Friday, Dec. 4, 2015 with curtains going up at 7:30 p.m.

photo by: John Young

Mark Mancini and Amy Nystrom run through a scene during a dress rehearsal for Theatre Lawrence's upcoming production of The Little Mermaid on Wednesday night. The show premieres Friday, Dec. 4, 2015 with curtains going up at 7:30 p.m.

When Mary Doveton gives backstage tours at Theatre Lawrence, she’s frequently asked, “Doesn’t this stuff just come with the script?”

No, it doesn’t, Doveton, executive director of the theater, explains good-naturedly. When Theatre Lawrence signs on to stage a big-budget, high-tech production like, say, “The Little Mermaid,” Disney doesn’t supply ready-made backdrops or costumes or, in this case, an oversized remote-controlled seashell.

“Oh no, all of that comes from our designers,” says Doveton, who, along with her crew, has created a whole new world for Theatre Lawrence’s production of “The Little Mermaid,” which opens Friday and runs through Dec. 20.

Based on the 1989 animated adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale, the musical’s “all sweetness and light and color,” Doveton says — in other words, pure Disney.

Other than a few minor changes to the story and some added songs by composers Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, “The Little Mermaid” remains mostly faithful to the beloved children’s flick that spurred such hits as “Under the Sea,” “Part of Your World” and “Kiss the Girl.”

They’re all there in Theatre Lawrence’s version, which is, well, very much Theatre Lawrence’s version, with aquatic lighting and aerial dancing apparatuses and sea-witch tentacles all conjured from the script and technical crew’s imagination.

Doveton, who steps in once a year to direct and chose to helm “Mermaid,” has yet to see the show performed live, other than the dress rehearsals at Theatre Lawrence.

“It’s always comforting to see someone else’s productions and see how they did something,” she says. “But in a way, this has been very liberating because it’s given us the opportunity to create our own moments.”

Among those moments: special-ordered atmospherics, special effects and water lights designed to simulate the view of looking downward to the bottom of a swimming pool as conceived by Theatre Lawrence technical director James Diemer, Cirque du Soleil-esque Spanish rope dancing by choreographer Molly Gordon, and costume designer Jane Pennington’s many whimsical ensembles.

“I tried to stay true to Disney’s vision as much as possible,” says Pennington, who admittedly — and gladly — went heavy on the glitter in the production. “There’s a lot of iridescent and reflective materials.”

Her biggest challenge has been translating Disney’s animated characters to the stage, a tough act when most of the characters are sea creatures, both real and mythical.

“How do you create a mermaid out of a two-legged person as opposed to a creature with a tail and arms?” Pennington asks. “It’s about trying to figure out how to look like the animal it’s supposed to represent while making it a practical costume that people can move in and dance in.”

Pennington found her solution in mixing street clothes and beastly features — i.e., dancing seagulls dressed in denim cutoffs, orange rubber boots and baseball caps outfitted with feather plums and elongated foam beaks.

She went through about three or four versions of Ariel’s costume before settling on the winner: a glittery contraption with a tail that moves independently and a skirt that covers actress Amy Nystrom’s legs.

But the crowing jewel, as far as Pennington’s concerned, might be Ursula, the larger-than-life sea witch who steals Ariel’s voice in exchange for a pair of legs. Made from hundreds of foam squares hand cut by theater volunteers, Ursula’s costume (she’s played by Secily Krumins) features eight detachable, contractible tentacles each measuring 8 feet long.

photo by: John Young

From left, cast members Brian Williams, Secily Krumins, Christoph Cording and Amy Nystrom run through a scene during a dress rehearsal for Theatre Lawrence's upcoming production of The Little Mermaid on Wednesday night. The show premieres Friday, Dec. 4, 2015 with curtains going up at 7:30 p.m.

They’re Doveton’s personal favorite, too — “Jane has outdone herself on that costume,” she gushes.

Following Theatre Lawrence’s tradition of staging family-friendly shows during the holidays, “The Little Mermaid” should attract its fair share of kids — “every little girl comes to see Ariel,” Doveton says of the titular sea princess — but for older theater goers who might not have grown up with the 1989 flick, there’s still plenty to enjoy — for example, the one-liners and physical comedy of Ursula and her eel sidekicks, Flotsam and Jetsam, she says.

But there are also slightly weightier themes at play. Ariel, in leaving her ocean home to chase her dream of living above the waves with her beloved Prince Eric, is given more agency than earlier Disney princesses.

“She has a sense of adventure,” Doveton says. “We’re concentrating on Ariel’s journey, on her adventure, on her idea of home.”

At one point, Ariel has a conversation with her friend Flounder about that very theme — “what constitutes as home and how sometimes home isn’t what you thought it might be and how we form communities of friends and like-minded people.”

Without spoiling anything, it’s safe to say Ariel does find her home in the end. (Really, which Disney stories, with the possible exception of the gut-wrenching “The Fox and the Hound,” don’t conclude on a cheerful note?)

“I think all of us like stories with happy endings — we all yearn for love and for laughter and for song,” Doveton says. “I think especially during the holidays, it’s a time to bring people together and celebrate love and family.”

That’s partly what makes the little mermaid’s tale so timeless, she says.

Tickets for “The Little Mermaid” range from $15.99 for children 14 and under to $24.99 for adults. They can be purchased in person at 4660 Bauer Farm Drive, online at theatrelawrence.com or at 843-7469.