Ben Nettleton (’29) and Gabriella Harkins (’26) enraptured audiences as leads in Cherokee’s 2025 fall production of “The Little Mermaid” as Scuttle.
Quirky and friendly, Scuttle the seagull is seen as a reliable guide for Ariel as she begins to explore the human world. He identifies human objects Ariel brings to him with confidence, despite his lack of true knowledge of them.
Harkins has been doing theater for a while, but dancing was always her main interest until she saw a show in eighth grade and fell in love with the craft.
“I joined Cherokee theater. I started out as a future dancer and kinda worked my way up to getting, like, leads,” she said.
Nettleton became interested after doing a show that mixed choir and theater in fifth grade. In sixth grade, a friend got him to audition for “Suessical,” and he’s been doing theater ever since.
“One of my friends, uh, Lucy, dragged me by my ear into the audition room and forced me to do it and I have done it since then,” he said.
Some of Harkins’ past roles have been Judy Hanes in “White Christmas” and Taylor in “High School Musical.” Nettleton told us about a lot of his past roles, many of which were more humorous characters. He was Jojo in “Seussical” and got to wear rainbow suspenders. He played Mr. Grasshopper in “James and the Giant Peach” and Hans in “Frozen,” and he put on a British accent for both. He also told us about playing R.F. Simpson in “Singin’ in the Rain” and said that he “had to be funny by being serious.”
Harkins has had a blast being a senior in the show. She told us that she went from being scared as a new freshman to a confident leader.
“When I became more of a leader, I went to incorporate everybody and tried to include everybody and made sure everybody felt more welcomed.” She’s also loved leading some of the dance rehearsals. Nettleton’s favorite part has been how welcoming the upperclassmen have been to him and the other younger actors.
Both Harkins and Nettleton were excited for people to see “Positoovity,” as it’s not in “The Little Mermaid’s” movie.
Harkins said, “I think it’s an unexpected number. I think everybody’s going into the show thinking: “Oh my gosh, ‘Under the Sea!’ Oh my gosh, ‘Kiss the Girl!’ But “Positoovity” comes out, and…” Both of the Scuttles loved singing that song.
Harkins says that the part of performing she enjoys less is the early learning process.
“You don’t really have a grasp on it.”
She noted that what’s so great about it is that you get to keep working on things and improving them. Her favorite part is tech week, specifically hearing things with the orchestra for the first time. Nettleton agrees.
The Scuttle performances were certainly memorable, and between the dancing, the voice, and the overall character, it’s hard to pick a favorite part. Nettleton and Harkins blew the audience away with their work, and it’s safe to say that Scuttle’s lovable ridiculousness will be remembered by Cherokee for a long time.
