“Be our guest, Be our guest!” Junior Kayleigh Gallagher performed in Disney’s musical Beauty and the Beast where she landed the lead role as Belle at the Dreamwrights Center for Community Arts in York, Pa.

Gallagher opened up about her experience.  “This role was really cool because it’s the first time I’ve ever been the lead in a big musical. I got to know everyone in the cast really well and I was friends with almost everyone since I worked the whole cast instead of only a few people.”

Although portraying Belle was enjoyable for Gallagher, she admits that it didn’t come without it’s struggles. She said, “It was also pretty stressful… I had to go to every rehearsal and I was in so many scenes. It was a lot of pressure but once the shows started I lost a lot of the stress and got caught up in the magic of the show.”

Fans of Beauty and the Beast are familiar with the scene where the Beast timidly asks Belle to dine with him. Gallagher admitted that was her favorite scene because it showed a lot of character development where the Beast first became vulnerable.

The thespian also said she enjoyed that scene because it was the first time the audience got to see Belle come out of her shell and stand up to the Beast.

Gallagher had many takeaways from this experience and reported, “The most rewarding part was the friends I made along the way. My friend, Logan, played Cogsworth in my cast and we became extremely close during the show. I also became friends with so many other people that I didn’t even know before the show,” she continues, “It was really stressful, but I never regretted doing the show.”