Equity Actors for "The Andy Bro Show: New Works Commission" Show

The Pod’s De Facto Leader. Driven, exacting, and fiercely type A, Mikayla works as the pool attendant at Prairie Springs Estates—her only tether to flowing water in her landlocked life. She enforces strict handmade-tail rules and insists everyone stay “in character,” crafting order out of chaos as she struggles to manage her unresolved grief. Becoming a professional mermaid has been her North Star for years, though her financial reality has kept that dream painfully out of reach.

Mikayla’s Best Friend, and Roommate. A gentle Type-B spirit and conflict-avoidant first-grade TA, Maya craves the peace and escape that summer mermaiding provides. Long overshadowed by Mikayla’s forcefulness, she often swallows her own needs out of fear of losing the one person who truly sees her. Mermaiding offers her a bridge to childhood joy—and to Mikayla. Meeting Bryan at the aquarium upends her priorities, forcing her to reckon with desires she’s long suppressed.

The Pod’s Lone Merman. Will is a witty, insecure barista couch-surfing since estrangement from his religious family. Mermaiding is his artistic lifeline—his sanctuary in a town where he’s the only gay boy he knows. A lifelong aspiring drag queen, he yearns to debut his bold, glamorous mersona, Blessence Bluebell, at MerCon. But year after year, the pod pressures him to present as Dorsea, a masculine merman. He dreams of escaping the Midwest, but for now, this pod is his chosen family.

Aquarium Dolphin Trainer. Working two hours away at the nearest aquarium, Bryan bursts into Maya’s life with encyclopedic marine knowledge and a warm, grounding presence. His genuine enthusiasm and unwavering support for Maya threaten Mikayla, especially when Maya begins spending more time with him—and decides to move in. His surprise arrival at MerCon becomes a turning point, testing long-held loyalties within the pod.

Mermaid Celebrity. A former Prairie Springs pod member turned full-time mermaid at the state aquarium, Arianne is glamorous, ambitious, and thriving. She runs Fun Fin, a viral synthetic-tail company, and teaches $1500 “find your inner mermaid” online intensives after skyrocketing to TikTok fame. Both an aspirational figure and an unsettling mirror to Mikayla, she’s hosting this year’s MerCon—making her an irresistible and destabilizing force for the pod that once claimed her.

The Pod’s Patron Princess. Murphy—heiress to a small empire of thirty Dairy Queen franchises—has been coddled her whole life, but remains deeply lonely. Her parents neither understand nor approve of her mermaiding, but it is the one place where she feels seen. She puts $75,000 of her own money behind the pod’s dream of going pro, funding their shot at MerCon with wholehearted optimism. Her mersona, Emeralida, is her her joy, and her purpose. Thani.

Fresh from Florida and hungry for community, Thani is juggling graduate school, single motherhood to a 1st grader, and a secret OnlyFans career—born from her ostracizing experiences in the cosplay world. She joins the pod hoping for a low-stakes, judgment-free escape. Mermaiding offers her a rare space where reinvention feels possible.

The Mersona of Mikayla’s Dead Sister—Seen Only by Mikayla. Amarantha is the shimmering, impossible presence of Mikayla’s sister Lauren, who drowned in childhood. She appears only to Mikayla, guiding her with a tenderness that veers dangerously close to seduction—inviting her into a world where grief and fantasy blur, and where Mikayla is tempted to join her forever.