CAMBRIDGE — At age 14, Mackenzie Brydon is planning her future as a “starving actor.”

The Preston High School student has a few stars in her eyes as she readies to take the stage in the Drayton presentation of High School Musical at the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse.

Eight years of singing lessons and almost as many years acting in community and high school plays is nothing like the professional production she joins for the first time Monday, May 3.

In the past, she’s had weeks and week to learn her. This time, she’s had three days to learn what she’s supposed to do in the ensemble of dancers and singers in High School Musical.

“It’s so fast paced, you rely a lot more on yourself and practice, rather than going over this part and that part again and again and do this again and this again,” Brydon said.

“You really have to hold your own.”

Brydon is one of 64 teens divided into four “pep squads” recruited by Drayton to give young actors a taste of the limelight.

Tonight, Brydon meets the full cast for the first time in a “put-in rehearsal.” She takes the stage in front of an audience Wednesday for the first time with her squad. She’ll appear daily until the St. Jacobs run ends May 15.

After that, the show moves to Grand Bend where another 32 students from schools in the London area will fill out two pep squad for two weeks.

Expectations aren’t watered down for the young actors, said Amanda Kind, Drayton’s groups and sales co-ordinator “Rehearsal was probably an eye opener. The dance moves they did were quite tough.”

Students don’t get paid, but they do get priceless stage experience, Kind said. “This is a chance to take young people in and show them the real world of theatre.”

Sometimes, the opportunity offers a Hollywood moment.

Last year, Cassandra Kranjec of Kitchener’s Forest Heights Secondary School was in the pep squad and wowed Drayton. This year, Kranjec was invited back to High School Musical, taking six weeks off school to perform as a paid actor.

Originally, High School Musical was going on the Drayton stage with all students from schools in the Wellington County area.

When renovations at the theatre ran late, the show moved to St. Jacobs and Kind put out the word to high schools in Waterloo Region looking for students from that area, too. That’s when Preston High School vocal teacher Johanna Wagner submitted Brydon’s name.

“She’s got singing. She’s got the acting. I just picked her for her energy,” Wagner said.

“She is the most-down-to-earth kid ... she doesn’t have a diva attitude.”

Brydon was a bit rattled about landing a spot in a professional production.

“I think being nervous is good. It gets your adrenalin going. It will be fun.”

After initial rehearsals, most of her anxiety is gone.

“Once you get in there with all the people … I know all the music, everyone is singing, you just get a sense of togetherness. It’s got this sense togetherness you can’t just not love.”

Brydon plans to attend a theatre school in Toronto after graduating Preston High.

“Hopefully, I’ll do the whole starving actor thing. Maybe I’ll make money some day.”

kswayze@cambridgereporter.com