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Steamboat Springs — When Sara Emily Pugh gets an opportunity to take the stage, there’s not much question whether she’ll take it.

“This is my life. I love being on stage, so it’s just another opportunity to add to the books,” Pugh said before getting ready for the final dress rehearsal for Steamboat Springs High School’s fall musical production Wednesday evening.

Pugh is a sophomore at Christian Heritage School and is returning to the high school’s drama group for the second time this fall. She plays Princess Winnifred the Woebegone in the musical comedy “Once Upon a Mattress,” and is one of about 25 student actors to devote the past two-plus months to the production.

“Once Upon a Mattress” opens at 7 p.m. today in the Steamboat Springs High School auditorium. The run continues with performances at 7 p.m. Friday and at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10 for the public and $5 for students.

The stage version and nontraditional take on the classic fairytale “The Princess and the Pea” features a king cursed to silence, a queen who has taken control, a prince she won’t let marry and a kingdom that can’t marry until the prince does.

Steamboat sophomore Blake Kelly plays Prince Dauntless, the hapless lead male role and Winnifred’s love, and said the character has started to seep into his everyday life as rehearsals pick up and the opening curtain comes closer.

“Your character starts to become a part of you, and your character relationships start to become like your real-life relationships,” Kelly said.

Pugh said she spends an hour or two each night working on her lines and the rest of her requirements for the musical. That’s in addition to regular rehearsals at the high school for the past two months, and a run of evening-long dress rehearsals this week.

“Going into this last stretch and this last week, it’s been really cool to see everything finally coming together. You see everybody come out of their shell, and all the energy comes together,” Pugh said.

Christian Weeden, a sophomore who plays the evil queen’s sidekick Wizard and Sir Studley in alternating performances, said he plans to continue acting in school plays as long as directors will have him.

“I guess acting for me, I enjoy it when other people are laughing. So if I can entertain people on stage, it’s just enjoyable for me to act out and be with friends,” Weeden said.

Pugh, Kelly and Weeden joke about the closeness of the cast and crew for their production of “Mattress” and have assigned family roles to most of the group. It’s a natural connection, considering the “extended periods of time every day” the cast is together and the necessity to “work with them and not get completely sick of them,” Pugh said.

As the pieces of the play started coming together Wednesday evening, that family dynamic seemed to be paying off for Pugh, Weeden, Blake and about 40 other cast, crew and orchestra members.

“You learn more about acting and theater and everything that goes into it every day,” Pugh said.

— To reach Margaret Hair, call 871-4204 or e-mail mhair@steamboatpilot.com