Every adventure requires a first step! Even if you don’t know what comes next! It’s time to take that first step and go on a wonderful adventure— and spoiler, I’ll tell you what comes next! Why it’s a wonderful, heartfelt, hour(ish) long show performed by 16 terrific young actors who are doing their show’s namesake— they are daring to dream! Hop on that magic carpet and soar on over to the Court Jesters (the junior division of Cockpit in Court) for this magical production of Disney’s Dare to Dream Jr. Directed by Liz Boyer Hunnicutt with Musical Direction by Charlotte Evans and Choreography by Ava Correlli Lerew, this quaint hour’s entertainment is heartwarming and joyful, very much what everyone needs in their life right now; a proper reminder to never give up on your dreams.

With scenery and lighting designed by Sammy Jungwirth, the basics are all in place for these eager young performers to share their songs with you. Jungwirth keeps it simple in both of his design concepts; putting the cogs on the wall to encourage the imagination to launch— we are in a Disney Imagineer’s ‘factory’ after all— and having Walt Disney quotes about dreams and imaginations is all that it takes— that a little faith and trust and something we all forgot— no, not pixie dust— courage! To believe in your dreams, of course. Add in Lizzie Jaspan’s colorful array of ‘Imagineer’ shirts (with our two ‘non-junior’ Imagineers being in yellow with overalls) and you’ve got all the right materials to spark to life both dreams and imagination!

Innovative, enthusiastic, and really fun-to-watch choreography is what Ava Correlli Lerew is delivering up for this Disney showcase-style show. Numbers like “Dig a Little Deeper” (The Princess & The Frog) and “Just Can’t Wait to Be King” (The Lion King) get some really energetic, jumping and jingling choreography going. Lerew fits the movements of her dance routines to the mood of the music and all of the actors are just overflowing with joy. You get an extra-fun duet-linked-arm-kick-a-long from Jayde Wild and Amelia Trageser Campbell during “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” (Toy Story) and “Friend Like Me” (Aladdin) gets the whole cast channeling those old-school Disney dance vibes. You get solid consistent sounds from music Director Charlotte Evans, especially when the performers sing together as a full company in songs like “I’ve Got a Dream” (Tangled) and “The Finale.” And Director Liz Boyer Hunnicutt encourages these young performers to develop charming and adorable character quirks, each unique to themselves.

With a cast of 17 performers— Trisha Banskota, Gaby Cabatingan, Sivert Carlson, Lucas Castro, Scarlett Cook, Noah Frieman, Caroline Greenwood, Beckett Hess, Zoey Jobe, Brady Katzenberger, Finley McCully, Presley Sinnott, Carly Stuart, Amelia Trageser Campbell, Tegan Whyte, Jayde Wild, and Chelsea Williams— this talented ensemble of young performers comes together with all the glee one could hope for coming out of a Disney ‘cabaret style’ show. You can feel some of these Disney-mottos— like “A dream is like a wish with a future”— resonating through their singing, their dancing, and their overall energetic engagement with the dialogue.

There are two ‘senior’ Imagineers— Brady Katzenberger and Gaby Cabatingan— who serve as the ‘leaders’ of the excursion; think of them as the beacons to fun, the harbingers of imagination, the tour guides of dreams! You can tell them apart from the Junior Imagineers (literally everyone else) because they have overalls! And they welcome the Junior Imagineers with strong encouragement and genuine sincerity. You get to hear them duetting together for “Be Our Guest”, the iconic up-tempo number from Beauty & The Beast, which serves as a welcoming bid to both Junior Imagineers and audiences alike to join them on this adventure. Katzenberger gets to showcase some of his vocal talents again in the second act when he tackles “Hakuna Matata” in a mash-up alongside Cabatingan, who does “Bare Necessities” (from The Lion King and The Jungle Book, respectively) and the whole thing leads into a funnel of fun from there through to the end.

Of course there are some truly heartfelt moments in the production— like little Cary Stuart, who kickstarts one of the more precious numbers “Remember Me” (Coco) and who also serves as the adorable youngster who gets to take the ‘magic carpet ride’ (engage your imagination and you’ll be young at heart again, ‘flying’ right alongside Stuart!) during one of the other numbers. Of course the show is more than just snippets and mashups of iconic Disney songs; they’ve all been carefully curated to tell this story of what it’s like to have dreams, why we have dreams, what we do with our dreams, and what to do if we’re not sure we have a dream.

Enter Finley McCully. The Junior Imagineer who isn’t sure she has a dream. Or maybe just doesn’t know what her dream is? McCully takes the lead with “Surface Pressure” (Encanto) and is joined with heightened emotional sensations by Scarlett Cook, Caroline Greenwood, Tegan Whyte, Chelsea Williams and the rest of the company; the whole group does a great job of delivering some intense modern dance moves that really flicker and flare with energy. McCully’s voice is just glowing here and it primes the audience for her big, stupendous solo in the second act “Go The Distance” (Hercules.) McCully delivers vocal wonders in that number, really soaring in her clarity of tone, emotional intention, and she sticks the landing like a gold-medal-winning gymnast when it comes to the finale of that number.

You get some other wild power-ballad push moments throughout the show as well. Caroline Greenwood, who first appears opposite Scarlett Cook in one of the earlier medleys which blends “How Far I’ll Go” (Moana) and “Part of Your World” (The Little Mermaid), showcases an emotional discovery in that song. Both Greenwood and Cook get a chance to wow the audience with the way they invest in the narrative of those numbers, and you hear Greenwood belting it out with the iconic number from Frozen, “Let It Go” a little later on in the performance. This is another fun number to watch all the ensemble engage in really creative choreography. And the whole first act engages with a lot of the ‘watery’ numbers (and icy-frosty ones, from Frozen, as mentioned!) so they had to include “Riverbend” (Pocahontas) and it’s sung beautifully by Chelsea Williams.

We’ve been talking a lot about these gorgeous, moving numbers that inspire our dreams, engage our imaginations but what about some of the sillier, more laughing-numbers, like “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” (The Lion King) performed by the confident Sivert Carlson and company? Carlson has a cheeky and precocious attitude for his character, just enough spunk to be confident without being cocky, because he knows what he thinks his dreams look like and he isn’t afraid to show it! And then you have Presley Sinnott and Lucas Castro taking turns in what is affectionately dubbed “Nonsense Medley” (featuring snippets from Cinderella, The Sword & The Stone, Snow White, and of course Mary Poppins.) Castro also kickstarts “Dig a Little Deeper” (The Princess & The Frog) at the top of the second act with a healthy amount of chutzpah and really gets the whole group jumping around for that number.

Jayde Wild and Amelia Trageser Campbell get to play back-to-back off of one another, with Wild delightfully and sincerely singing the lion’s share of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” (Toy Story) whilst dancing and mini kick-lining along with Campbell; the pair make for a perfectly precious set of friends! And that’s followed by the enthusiastically engaging vocal magic that Campbell imbues to “Friend Like Me” (Aladdin.) And just like everyone wants and needs a friend, Noah Frieman delivers a striking rendition of “Out There” (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) early on. You get feel this incredible wave of optimism radiating out of Frieman early in the second act during “Try Everything” (Zootopia) as well; it’s perfectly par for the course when it comes to the feel-good vibes of this show.

The whole performance is just delightful; getting to experience these kids singing and dancing their hearts out, engaging with one another, supporting and encouraging one another, showing each other that it’s okay to have dreams, to pursue them, to take it one step at a time, and to always keep their dreams alive; this is the message of hope that the whole world could use right now. These 17 young performers are living the “four steps and will have you believing them to before the end of the show. First— THINK! Second— DREAM. Third— BELIEVE. And finally? DARE! Dare To Dream and you best dream up a way to come see these wonderfully engaging young performers before they close the weekend of July 19^th 2026!

Running Time: Approximately 70 minutes with one intermission

Disney’s Dare to Dream Jr. plays through July 19^th 2026 as a Cockpit in Court, Court Jesters show in the Lecture Hall of the Administration Building at the Community College of Baltimore County Essex Campus— 7201 Rossville Boulevard in Baltimore, MD. For tickets call the box office at (443) 840-2426 or purchase them online.