Theater couple Kira Cowan, Jared Troilo take center stage in Fiddlehead’s ‘The Little Mermaid’

Shrewsbury High School was the setting where Kira Cowan and Jared Troilo first met, and musical theater was where they became partners both on and off the stage. The couple, who recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, collaborate for the first time as husband and wife in Fiddlehead Theater Company’s musical adaptation of the Disney classic “The Little Mermaid.”

Cowan, the show’s choreographer, fell in love with musical theater in high school. The former gymnast, who joined the choir at Shrewsbury High, recalled how her choir teacher told her that she had perfect pitch. Cowan didn’t know that at the time but then her teacher began giving her solos. Slowly she found herself performing in musicals. She soon realized that she loved to sing and with her gymnast background the dancing “fell into place easily,” says Cowan by phone recently.

Cowan began choreographing musical theater productions and dance concerts while attending Emerson College, where she earned her bachelor of fine arts in musical theater. For eight years she was the resident choreographer at Shrewbury High School, and she’s also choreographed the Weston Drama Workshop, Broadway Break Thru and The Regatta Players Theater Group. Since 2010, Cowan has been the resident choreographer for Blue Spruce Theatre in Watertown, Mass.

In addition to dancing, Cowan also is an actress and tries to balance both professional loves equally, often struggling to decide on whether to audition for a role or go after choreographing a production.

“It’s kind of a test for me,” she says. “I take a look at my year and think how do I get a good balance between choreographing and performing? I don’t want to do too much of one.”

However, with “The Little Mermaid” she knew right from the start that she wanted to choreograph Fiddlehead’s latest production. Not only is “The Little Mermaid” one of Cowan’s favorite movies and one of her favorite musicals, but as she says “there were so many dance numbers in it,” including French and calypso. She already could see all the opportunities for dance in her head. “I know that’s a show I’d love to choreograph because the gears are already kind of turning for that show,” describes Cowan.

With every production that she’s choreographing, Cowan “sees what came before, how she can give a nod to the original, and how she can make it her own.”

Troilo, who also is a Shrewsbury native, stars as Prince Eric, Ariel’s romantic interest. Troilo began doing theater at the age of 10, went on to perform in high school musicals and later earned a BFA in musical theater at The Boston Conservatory.

Performing in both off-Broadway productions and regional theater (as Jesus in “Godspell,” Danny Zuko in “Grease” and Tony in “West Side Story”), Troilo often looks “for pretty interesting characters and good music” when searching for a character to portray. Of his role as Prince Eric in “The Little Mermaid,” he says, “this character is so fascinating because he’s on the verge of becoming king. It’s the last thing on earth that he wants. He wants to be free of that and just sail and be a normal sailor.”

Often cast as the “young heroic leading man tenor,” Troilo had the opportunity to play a more complex character with the role of Frank Whitaker in the regional production of “Far From Heaven.” It was based on the 2002 movie starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid as a 1950s married couple facing a crisis.

“It was kind of a chance to almost create an original character even though there was a movie. It was a very unique musical because it wasn’t a big production show like ‘The Little Mermaid’ or ‘Miss Saigon.’ It was a character-driven drama. It was a chance to stretch myself. This character was conflicted and dark and abusive and I never got to do that before. And, it was really exciting,” says Troilo.