Two sisters shared the stage for the last time as the iconic eels in OHS’s production of “The Little Mermaid.” 

Kaylee (10)  and Kaitlyn Bridges (12) have both been in multiple productions at OHS. Last year, they shared the stage for the first time in “The Addams Family,” with Kaitlyn as Fester and Kaylee as an Ancestor. 

“Last year we did ‘Addams’ together, but we never really had any rehearsals on the same date, so we never really got to see each other during rehearsal. That was kind of disappointing,” Kaylee (10) said. 

With being in such different parts in “The Addams Family” the pair was rarely able to see one another. But with “The Little Mermaid,” they were in every scene together and attended every rehearsal together. This gave them a chance to spend a large amount of time together. 

“I don’t get to see my sister a lot at home between school and her working and after school activities apart from theater,”  Kaylee said. “So this kind of allowed me to see how she is in a more loose setting. I just finally got to see what my sister’s actually like when she’s not talking to our parents.”

Including all of the positives, it did not come without its challenges. Like most siblings, the Bridges bumped heads a few times. Learning music, blocking and dances can become difficult when you have to be perfectly in sync with your sibling. 

“I don’t know how to teach myself how to sing a song if it’s not getting played for me with somebody else singing it,” Kaitlyn said. “Then I would get mad. And then I would start to yell at her, and we would start to have sibling fights while we were trying to learn the songs.”

“I like seeing more of how she carries herself. I don’t get to hang out with her a lot, so it was kind of nice getting to just be in close proximity with her,” Kaylee said. 

Each of them played a unique half of the pair of eels. But being an actor requires you to make your own choices in a way your character would act. The Bridges were tasked with a specially hard job of portraying their characters in sync. 

“So we kind of had to figure ourselves out together. We kind of used different things we did as an example, because our characters are supposed to be really similar, basically the same unit of eel,” Kaylee said. 

With Kaitlyn attending STLCC next semester, this meant that the fall musical was most likely her last time on the Nottelmann stage with the Oakville Theater company, so the experience was bittersweet. 

“So it probably is our last time sharing the stage. Like, I guess to me, it was special because I got to be a character that was really close to hers. And so I got to hang out with her. I kind of called it my last hurrah,” Kaitlyn said. 

With this being some of the last few months before Kaitlyn goes off the college, some would say these sisters got very lucky they got to spend the last three months working together. 

“She’s going off to college for the next semester,” Kaylee said, “so it was kind of like my last chance to really get to see her often. So it connected us on an emotional level.”