Mermaid in Miami

I was obsessed with Disney's "The Little Mermaid" when I was a teenager.

I know, that sounds a little fishy. (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun.) Seriously though, I thought Ariel was adorable.

I had quite the animated crush on the two-dimensional mermaid. But as much as I loved the Disney cartoon, I also knew that it did not follow-through on the original ending. So, I began thinking of ways to revisit Hans Christian Andersen.

The result: Mermaid in Miami. On the one hand, this script is just as fun and silly as my other ones. But there are other things going on in this children's play as well. For one, I based some of the conflict off of the crisis over Elia Gonzalez -- the little boy who's mother died trying to get them to Florida.

The boy fell in love with his American relatives, but was then returned to his father in Cuba. Also in the play, an old-man-man-and-the-sea Ernest Hemmingway character. And finally, Breeze, the mermaid -- she experiences a sad, but hopefully uplifting ending that is similar (but not entirely faithful) to the original story.

Actor Keith Coogan performed one of the monologues from the play. Check it out:


Interested in reading the script? Visit Eldridge Plays.