Inside the dimmed auditorium on a Sunday morning sat drama students on the half-set stage.  Heads craned up and cameras out, they watched as their fellow students floated above the ground, hanging by a few strings.

Seems scary?  Well, to theater kids it’s just a part of the act.

The spring musical “Mary Poppins” will be taking the stage this weekend and to completely transport the audience to the 1910 London experience, Mary Poppins (played by Paige Terch) and her friend Bert (played by Luke Goeckner) will be taking flight.

“Mary Poppins is able to fly because, in the show you’ll see there’s a lot of bird symbolism, and Mary is a lark, which is one of the only birds that can sing while they’re flying,” Terch said.  “It really just adds to the magical element of Mary and rounds out her character and her abilities.”

However, on this cold and cloudy Sunday, all drama students were given an opportunity to practice flying for themselves.

“I’ve never been up that high in the theater… (there’s) a lot of things going on (up there) so it was interesting to see everything up close and you really are flying which is awesome,” senior actress Grace Pellock said.  “It’s an experience you will never get again.”

Terch, Goeckner and their fellow students are able to fly using wire cables and harnesses hidden beneath their costumes.  The tech students are responsible for assisting in the flight and face a large responsibility in the safety of the actors during their performance.

During the workshop however, senior actor Myles Daugherty helped out with his fellow students’ take off.

“I really just helped operate the flight system which basically entails pulling ropes at different times to make people go up or down,” Daugherty said.  “It was a really awesome experience because I know I’m probably not going to get that chance again, and that just made it even better.”