The girl (blue skirt and pigtails), who just finished her junior year of homeschooling last week, is in the dance ensemble for this professional production of “Beauty and the Beast,” which opens tonight (in a sold-out show) at the St. Vincent Summer Theatre.

I spent a few summers doing PR for the Heritage Repertory Theater in Charlottesville, so it’s been fascinating listening to Carolyn’s stories about the pace of a professional summer show. They had about 8 days of rehearsals, then a day off, then three days of tech, and then it was yesterday’s preview.

This is the fourth time she’s done B&B, but the first time she’s been in the “Gaston” number.

She has played Chip and Cogsworth in student productions, and Babette in a professional Stage Right production a couple years ago.

This time she is in the dance ensemble, playing a villager, wolf, and the enchanted carpet.