Michael Prickett hasn't found the right way to tell his 4-year-old daughter he's going to be wearing a dress.
"I don't think she really understands that I'm going to be dressed up as a woman," Prickett said.
Jason Lehman, on the other hand, has students who are counting down the days until they can see him in high heels.
"There's a real big interest back at the middle school about seeing Mr. Lehman in a dress," Lehman said.
Prickett, a resident of Opelika, and Lehman, a middle school theater teacher from Columbus, are actors preparing for their shared role as Edna Turnblad in the Auburn Area Community Theatre's production of the Broadway musical "Hairspray."
The show begins Nov. 3 and runs until Nov. 13 at the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center on East Drake Avenue. Dates and showtimes can be found at www.auburnact.org.
The show is about plucky Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad who wants to dance on a popular 1960s TV music show.
The part of her mother, Edna, is traditionally performed by a male wearing women's clothing, or in John Travolta's case in the 2007 film version, a fat suit and plenty of makeup.
Assistant director for the AACT Steve Bice said there was no question a man should play Edna.
"The role is written that way," Bice said.
John Waters, writer of "Hairspray," based Edna off his friend Divine.
"Divine was a 350-pound drag queen, and Divine wanted to play the role of Edna and Tracy," Bice said.
Bice said when local auditions for Edna were over, the directors couldn't choose between Prickett and Lehman.
The decision was made to keep both men since there was already an understudy for the role of Tracy.
The part came as a welcome change of pace for Lehman, who has been acting his whole life and works at Walt Disney World during the summer. He travels the nearly 80-mile round trip from Columbus to Auburn five days a week to rehearse.
Prickett has been involved with AACT for about four years and said he is excited for this role.
"This is one of the roles that I wanted to do ever since I got into theater," Prickett said. "So I was real excited to do it."
It also isn't either man's first experience with drag. Lehman said as a high school freshman he performed in a show where he had to wear women's clothes and play a flute.
Prickett said he's been in a womanless beauty pageant, which was the first time his oldest daughter saw him in a dress.
"She saw me then and thought it was funny, but I think this will be better," Prickett said.
"Hairspray" lacks its own wardrobe, so the men will be frequenting thrift stores in the coming weeks to find their costumes.
"I've tried on a couple pairs of high heels, so that's been interesting," Prickett said. "It's strange trying to squeeze your foot into a small, woman's shoe."
Lehman said he has no preferences on how his costume will look.
"I'll just take anything that will fit," Lehman said.
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