Recreating 1910 England in Northwest Arkansas requires more than set design for Arts Live. For their production of “Mary Poppins Jr.,” they start by considering just how different people are now.

“In the post-Victorian Age, everything was so uptight and formal and buttoned up,” said director and teaching artist Julie Gabel. “Mary Poppins comes across physically very proper, but she introduces fun to the kids.”

The magical nanny uses “A Spoonful of Sugar” to make medicine easier to take. She initiates games in the park at a time when the manicured meeting places were intended for watching stuffy people walk around.

She’s dedicated to bringing joy to the Banks children, which wasn’t the norm at the time where poor kids worked (child labor wasn’t abolished in England until the 1930s). Affluent kids were raised by nannies, Gabel said.

She was surprised when George Banks, the father of Mary Poppin’s charges, says he saw his parents just once a week when he was a child.

“That’s so foreign to the way we live,” she said adding that she’s always thought it was an interesting choice to set the story in a time where children were seen and not heard and rarely celebrated.

“To pick that time period to make that kind of transition, I think, was really an interesting choice, and makes a big impact,” Gabel said. “To see those children experiencing joy and love is really exciting.”

And while Mary Poppins is magical, Gabel said that real magic is the joy and the power of transformation for the kids in the story as well as the adults.

“For the dad, I think there was a big message there for him to be able to to really look at his children as these precious young things,” said Gabel.

To recreate the early Edwardian England, Arts Live actors — ranging from age 8 to 18 — are learning to walk and carry themselves like English high society.

“We have to keep reminding ourselves that this is 1910 England. This is not 2024, so we hold ourselves differently. We stand differently, we gesture differently,” said Gabel. “We can’t do high fives and we can’t do big hugs. There are things that we do in our everyday life that they didn’t do back then.”

She added that they’ve had to be careful in prop choices because you can’t just buy them at Walmart. Costume designer Sarah Nickerson has created period clothing that can be changed quickly between scenes. During rehearsal, in addition to running lines, the cast and director discuss what different words and phrases mean.

“I think period pieces are really interesting because … when telling a story, whenever it is, it always has to have the humanity behind it,” Gabel said. “With Mary Poppins, there’s a lot of humanity and there’s a lot of enlightenment that happens.”

Plus she said it’s fun to recreate a story that so many people know and love.

She praises Makenzie Oldt, who plays the title role in the musical, and her ability to completely become her different characters including Smee in “Peter Pan Jr.,” the mom in “Elf,” and Gingy the Gingerbread Man in “Shrek Jr.” She said that Oldt, like the rest of the cast, always comes prepared.

Gabel said she loves watching the 38 cast members work together and become their own little community while staging the musical and keeping up a busy rehearsal schedule.

“I’m always appreciative of the commitment of the actors,” she said. “I just love that the kids are so kind to each other and to me, of course, but they’re just so supportive to the new kids. We form a bond because we’re a cast, like any kind of team, they work together. It’s a very collaborative art form, and everyone’s ability to to be open and create friendships, is what I love about theater. These kids just do that of naturally.”

But most of all, the cast is having fun which makes the director happy.

“When they’re having fun, I’m having fun.”

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FAQ

“Mary Poppins Jr.”

WHAT — Mary Poppins takes the Banks children on many magical and memorable adventures and even teaches the grown ups that “Anything can happen if you let it.” Based on the classic Disney movie, Arts Live brings the story of the magical nanny who reminds the Banks family to value each other again with unforgettable songs and fun.

WHEN —Nov. 7-10

WHERE — The Medium in Springdale

COST — $12-$15

INFO — Arts Livetheatre.com.