Calling all young actors.

Meridian Community College’s Fine Art Division will present Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and is looking for chorus members and townspeople.

The auditions are set for Monday, Jan. 23, at 5:30 p.m. in the McCain Theater. Dr. Todd Brand, communications and fine arts division chair, said the audition is open for any children from the ages of 5-12; they must be able and willing to both sing and dance.

For details on the auditions, contact Brand at MCC at 601-484-8678.

The play is based on the tale of a conceited but handsome prince who is turned into a beast. Further, the prince's staff is all transformed into objects to do with their profession. The prince is given a magical mirror to view the outside world. To break the spell, he needs to learn to love a person for who they are, and get her to love him before a magical rose loses its petals. Meanwhile in a nearby village, a beautiful young bookworm (Belle) feels lonely and out of place. She lives with her eccentric but kind father, Maurice. Soon, Maurice goes off to compete at an inventors' fair but gets lost in the woods and ends up a prisoner at the beast's castle. Belle eventually finds the castle and makes a deal with the beast to let her father go in return for her staying there with the beast. As the beast's inner kindness slowly reveals itself, Belle grows to be in love with him. However, a jilted, self-centered and overly-masculine suitor from Belle's village, Gaston, takes a posse to 'save' her from the beast. Gaston ends up stabbing the beast. Luckily, when Belle rushes to the beast and expresses her love for him, he comes back to life again as a handsome prince.