Susan, If your production isn't until the spring hopefully you can change your production times? My school is presently doing The Little Mermaid Junior. The Junior shows are wonderful for the middle school level and changing voice. While it's not the full show, Cindy and the entire team takes such great care of the show for students to succeed. The Junior version isn't a picnic but in my opinion, the thought and time put into the Junior rewrite gives the kids a level of difficulty that they can obtain. I am finding that the technical things are the challenge and the acting to convey the show is the hurdle to climb. The pieces allow for 2 and 3 part harmony at times and sets and costumes truly are what you make of it. I know that my production team is putting these things together now and I would be happy to loan out or help in any way possible. I'm a native NYer myself so I am in the area regularly. If you look on here Christine Jeter has some awesome pics and stuff on here as well. When I inherited my program the first change I made was that the ensemble would rehearse but then the leads or certain groups would have to put in a different day. My group rehearses afterschool for 2 1/2 hours 3 days a week and my leads or certain groups have an extra rehearsal date. I have to say that while we are all seasoned pros in some way if you have time to attend the iTheatrics Summer Intensive. There you are able to really get a lot of time in on how to work with a group and maximize your performance time. I have been doing this for 10 years now and I can say that after recently attending the workshop and working with Cindy and the iTheatrics staff you will gain some valuable tools. My students this year are much farther than ever at this time and that's a lot of things I put from the Intensive to work. While we want to push and make our kids amazing performers, I always worry "Am I pushing too hard or putting the expectation too high?". Junior Productions can and are as challenging as anything else but as it's been said your preparation and homework are a part of this network to get the kids to where they can be. The CD is well worth the investment. It also has freed up so much money to do other things to help with the kids. But in the end it is for the kids and that's the goal of everyone working on the shows to us presenting the shows. No show is perfect, everyone has typos at some point but we can overcome them and have wonderful productions by knowing our kids, knowing our limits, doing our homework and adjusting on the fly as all of us have done many times