When a handsome prince is transformed by a troll into a fierce white bear, only a brave and beautiful girl can help set him free, but to do this, she has to travel to the ends of the earth, “East of the Sun and West of the Moon.”

Vintage High School drama students present the Norwegian folktale of love and enchantment this weekend and next in the school’s little theater.

Lara (Olivia Salinas), a daughter of an impoverished woodcutter’s family, is confronted with a strange proposal from a talking bear (Sam Burch): If she leaves her home and lives with him, her family, in return, will go from poverty to a life of luxury. Realizing what this means to her siblings and parents, Lara leaves with the bear, only to discover that she will be living in a castle, in no mean comfort herself, and that the bear is not a bad companion. What she doesn’t know is that the bear is a prince, disguised by a spell, and that she has the power to rescue him — until two trolls lead her into a disastrous mistake, and her bear-prince vanishes, doomed now to marry the Troll Queen’s daughter. Determined to make things right, Lara sets out to find him, knowing only that he’s somewhere in the troll kingdom that can be found east of the sun and west of the moon.

The cast also includes Ashley Zaragoza as Lara’s father, Sarah Stacks as Lara’s mother, and Ashley Vande Hoven, Kaci Sousa and Lindsey Evens as Lara’s siblings. Zenia Rios is the white bear’s housekeeper; Cieara Blue is Helga, the Troll Queen, and Chelsea Bassett is Ermintrude, the Troll Queen’s daughter. Tim Bacon, Alyssa Ciapponi, Kylie Handy, Leah Ewald, Jesse Cuffe and Zaragoza take roles as trolls. Cuffe also is Meda, Mother of the Winds, and Handy, Sousa, Vande Hoven and Evens take on second roles as, respectively, the West, South, East and North winds that help Lara find her prince.

The play is directed by Susan Davis; Blue is stage manager; Jeremy Bomar is in charge of the lights, Emily Fahey oversees the sound, and Madeleine Sexton is the stage hand for the production.

‘East of the Sun and West of the Moon’