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The curtains open for the play “Les Miserables.” Junior Aiden Hansen watches in the audience as an elementary school kid. In this moment, he discovered his passion, one that would change his life forever.

“I just fell in love with that show specifically – and then theater as a whole,” Hansen said. “Being on the stage and being able to hopefully influence other people’s lives as mine was, it’s just like my blood.”

Hansen has starred in many musicals, such as “Spongebob the Musical,” which took place last year. Prosper Theatre’s next show will be “Moby Dick,” which will open Oct. 18 and will run through Oct. 20. Before he found his love for theater, Hansen participated in competitive swim. He said that after he lost interest in swim, he developed a new interest in acting.

“I wanted to find my passion,” Hansen said. “One of my friends was doing Drama Kids in middle school, so I did that, and it was kind of fun. And then I discovered a company called NTPA, which I did outside of school theater, and I started doing their shows all the time.”

During the beginning stages of his acting, he said his dad saw his excitement for theater and encouraged him to keep pursuing it.

“Whenever I did Drama Kids, I hadn’t really had as much fun with anything else in my life than I had with theater,” Hansen said. “So, when I started doing theater, he (his dad) really saw that, and he really pushed me to make it more of a part of my life.”

At the end of his eighth grade year, Hansen began auditioning to be in the high school theater. Prosper High Theatre includes a varsity and JV class. In order to audition as an eighth-grader, he had to send in a video, whereas auditions take place in class if you’re already in high school.

“I sang a minute-long cut of a song, and then I did a minute-long monologue,” Hansen said. “As a freshman, I made varsity acting and varsity musical, and being in that feels like such a family. So, I kept doing it all three years.”

Getting into roles that are mature can be a good challenge for Hansen. He said he sees the value of putting himself in the character’s shoes in order to deliver an effective performance.

“I played a role last year, and his name was ‘Bill’ in ‘The Women of Lockerbie,'” Hansen said. “His son had died in a terrorist attack, so getting into my character to really do the story justice was special in order to tell the story.”

Junior Erica Smith said Hansen puts in an ‘extra’ amount of work into what he does.

“He’s very inspiring in the sense that the amount of work he puts into his craft and anything that he’s working on project-wise, you can tell that he really wants to be putting in 100 percent,” Smith said. “I think that helps not just him but the people around him.”

Right now, Hansen and the rest of the theater are working on their big fall musical – “Frozen.” In the morning, they come in from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. to work on music rehearsals. In the afternoons, they have been choreographing the songs, practicing blocking different scenes and setting the stage. At the same time, most of the cast is still getting to know each other as new members have joined.

“Some of us already know each other from like, past years, but there’s a lot of new people as well,” Hansen said. “We still kind of get together as a cast, and it’s kind of cool to see what will probably be an amazing show, like building from the ground up the foundation of it, which is where we’re at now.”

Theater director Christopher Kulmann said that Aiden is a leader to his fellow castmates.

“Aiden is very good at getting up on the pedestal and being the number one cheerleader for his peers,” Kulmann said. “He roots them on and leads them into action.”

Some of the shows taking place this year for the PHS theater are “Moby Dick,” “Frozen,” “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” and the spring musical “Legally Blonde”. Hansen gives insight on the meaning behind Legally Blonde, as he said this will be the show he looks forward to the most.

“It’s a full-length musical, so it’s like a musical that you would see on Broadway. It’s really cool. The message of it is amazing,” Hansen said. “It’s about a girl discovering that just because the world sees her one way, as in the world only sees her as a blonde, she can still go to Harvard Law School and become the valedictorian. It’s a really cool story, and I feel like it’s going to be a lot of fun to put on with like the set. And, the songs are just so catchy.”

Hansen said choir represents another one of his passions. He has been in choir since fourth grade, and he said it has helped him throughout his acting career.

“I really love choir,” Hansen said. “It’s really cool to be able to see how much choir can help you in theater and how much theater can help you in choir because they’re just two very different things that have a lot in common. I’ve learned to read music from being in choir, where in theater that is a very helpful asset to be able to do because I can read the sheet music much easier and teach myself it much easier, and it helps the show as a whole.”

Regarding acting, Hansen has plans for the future – and for now.

“Before I graduate, I’d love to be nominated for a Dallas Broadway musical award,” Hansen said. “That (would) just be so cool to be able to say that you got nominated for it, so that’s probably a huge goal. I love this with all my heart, and the way I view it, at least, is you just kind of got to go with the flow. I’ll probably audition into colleges, but it’s more something that I kind of want to see what happens.”

Not only does theater create a place that Hansen enjoys, but he also said he hopes to spread that joy to the people who are in the audience.

“It’s so fun to be able to be on stage and be with my friends and my fellow castmates and tell a story,” Hansen said. “It can really change people’s lives.”