Who: Julee Vadnais is an actor and teacher. Since moving to Bend three years ago, Vadnais has been seen on stage in such productions as “Radiance: The Passion of Marie Curie” at Cascades Theatre. The theater, located at 148 NW Greenwood Ave., in Bend, is where her new concern, Whimsy Entertainment Theatre for Young Audiences, will perform its first show, a version of “Sleeping Beauty” for kids featuring an adult cast. Performances are at 10 and 11:30 a.m. Sunday, as well as Nov. 10 and 11. Tickets are $12, $25 for VIP seating, plus fees at bendticket.com. Contact: info@whimsyent.com.

Q: This is a new theater group for Bend, but you have a background in performing for kids?

A: Yeah, well I’ve been doing theater forever. I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, and I was a performer at Disney World for a number of years. I was tying to make it as an actor in Los Angeles, and missing what I did at Disney, I ended up going to clown college. I was a professional clown. … That was my weekend job in between trying to get acting gigs. I just really loved entertaining kids, and I’ve moved several times for the film industry and to do different things with that, and I’ve always just sort of had that as a back-up gig. … I teach at BEAT, the kids theater. I teach some of their summer camps and have an ongoing class there. … I’ve always seen theater for young audiences, and knew we didn’t have one in Bend, so I was like, “OK, let’s do this.”

Q: How did you pick this for your first show?

A: Just reading through lots of shows. I wanted something fun and interactive (with) minimal actors. I wanted to start off with something with a small cast. There’s only four actors in the show. And everybody loves Disney princesses, especially with my affinity with Disney — I’m a pretty big Disney freak after working there. I just felt like “Sleeping Beauty” would be a nice introduction to doing this type of stuff. … Obviously, it’s our first one, so I know it’s going to take a little while for everybody in town to understand, “No, it’s not kids doing theater. It’s adults doing theater for kids and for families.” They learn theater etiquette; they see live events, to get them into that. Parents are a little bit more entertained, too. … It’s always fun to see adults who know how to push the story along very fast and create the characters, you know? And actors have found that it’s just fun. You know, it’s not Shakespeare. … The dialogue’s obviously not, like, scholarly, or like, “Oh, this is the role that I’ve always wanted to play my whole life,” but we have a great time just rehearsing, and it’s such a funny, cute story and it moves really fast. You snap your fingers and it’s done, but it takes just as much work as a full production, with costumes, props, lighting and sound, if not more.

Q: Anything else you’d like people to know about “Sleeping Beauty”?

A: That it’s fun for everybody, for parents, for kids. It helps parents to feel like they’re part of the magic, creating memories the same way I was able to do at Disney. It’s an experience you can’t really get anywhere else. … I’m hoping to do “Snow White” in March. It’s a two-person version of Snow White. It’s just Snow White and this dwarf. … (It) tells the whole story and they take turns playing all of the characters. So it’s more of a really funny improv thing between the two characters.

Q: What did you do at Disney?

A: I played — well, we don’t say we “played,” we were “friends with” — because we want to keep (the magic) alive. You know, every princess was really the real one. So I was friends with Mary Poppins, Cruella de Vil, Megara, Belle and Ariel. And I did several shows. I did Fantasmic, and the Cinderella Castle show, and then story time with Belle. I did five or six of the parades that they have there at Disney World in Florida.

— David Jasper, The Bulletin