Marc Chrupcala (’26) and Drew Tyson (’26) served major roles in Cherokee’s 2025 fall production of “The Little Mermaid” as Prince Eric, with Chrupcala on Friday nights and Tyson on Saturdays.
Prince Eric is the handsome human that catches Ariel’s eye after he nearly drowns in a storm at sea. After she saves his life and leaves him on the beach with only the memory of her voice, he becomes determined to find her, especially as he is pressured to marry.
Tyson got into theater in sixth grade. His parents put him into it, and he admits he wasn’t eager to participate at first. As audiences can tell, that has changed since then. Chrupcala had a friend push him into theater sophomore year. Like Tyson, he wasn’t sure about it at first but loved it once he joined.
Some of Tyson’s favorite roles have been Bob Wallace in “White Christmas,” Rooster in “Annie,” and Ryan in “High School Musical.” Chrupcala’s favorites include Brewster in “Annie,” Phil Davis in “White Christmas,” and Troy Bolton in “High School Musical.”
The two voiced that the best parts of the show are the ensemble work, seeing all of the dances come together, and the connections made while involved in theater.
Chrupcala said, “It’s a great community in theater, and you’re surrounded by people who really have the same ambition as you, and that really just creates a good environment to be in.”
Tyson stated that his favorite song to sing in the show is one called “If Only (Quartet),” a song sung by Ariel, Eric, Sebastian, and King Triton about what they are longing for in the future. He says that it’s “one of the prettiest songs,” and that “it has a bunch of overlapping themes from the musical, and it shows off everyone’s vocal ability off really well.” Chrupcala’s favorite song is the finale, because of its harmonies.
In the show, many of Prince Eric’s lines are underscored, which means that there is music playing while the character is speaking. This can pose a challenge for actors because they have to get the timing just right, or everything is thrown off. Both Tyson and Chrupcala agreed that this was something they needed to improve on before opening night.
Chrupcala said that the difficulty with their underscored lines was that “you can’t really practice that on your own, you can only practice it during rehearsal time, and that’s very limited, so it’s tricky to get it right.”
We talked about their favorite and least favorite parts of performing, and Tyson said that his favorite “is the energy that comes out of it.”
He commented, “I’ve been to a bunch of performances, and ones that make me cry, like, just because of how much emotion, how much heart everything has to go into, and I connect with that.”
Something he doesn’t love as much is the pre-show stress felt right before going onstage. “You know you’re going to be fine,” he said, “but then there’s this inkling in the back of your head like, ‘you’re not!’”
Chrupcala’s favorite and least favorite things are pretty similar. His favorite, he said, is getting to play characters that are nothing like him.
“People think that theater’s scary because you have to go up on a big stage and like, you know, sing in front of thousands of people, but, if you’re hiding behind this certain character, all that fear’s kind of gone.” What he doesn’t like is playing a character he doesn’t “resonate with” to the point that it becomes “suffocating.”
Tyson and Chrupcala were both amazing as Prince Eric and in the ensemble roles they took on when the other took his turn in the spotlight. Shoutout to Tyson for his work in “Les Poissons,” because his facial expressions were on point!
