At its core, the story of Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins is about family relationships and for Gail Bennett, who plays the title role at Tuacahn this summer, the idea of family hits very close to home — on the same stage, actually.

Sharing the professional spotlight for the first time, Gail Bennett’s 10-year-old daughter, Lydia DeJesus, is working as the understudy to Jane. So even though this is Bennett’s seventh time in the Mary Poppins role, this time around feels extra special.

“Just knowing we’re going to get to tell this story together… there are no words to describe how fulfilling that is.”

~Gail Bennett

“Most of the time in rehearsals, she is on the sidelines watching the principal children, but sometimes they send her in to rehearse a scene,” Bennett said, recalling one time when DeJesus was on stage with her as she sang “Feed the Birds.”

“I had to look at her playing Jane and she had to defiantly look at me; I couldn’t hold it together and I kept thinking, ‘Mary Poppins can’t cry!’” Bennett said. “Just knowing we’re going to get to tell this story together, a story I’ve been telling since before she was born… there are no words to describe how fulfilling that is.”

The last time Tuacahn produced Mary Poppins in 2013, Bennett was also cast in the lead role. Back then, DeJesus was just a baby hanging out in ShowCare (Tuacahn’s on-site childcare) and now she’s carving her own path on stage.

“In an actor’s life, you can never plan ahead. You never know what job you’re going to book.”

“I was doing a lot of Mary Poppins when she was young,” Bennett said. “She had this Mary Poppins doll from the Disney Store in London and she would tuck it under her arm and call it Mommy Poppins.”

So far, theater seems to run in the family as Bennett’s husband, Aaron DeJesus, is also a professional actor, most recently as part of the run of Jersey Boys in New York City.

“We balance it one contract at a time,” Bennett said. “In an actor’s life, you can never plan ahead. You never know what job you’re going to book.”

Living without the luxury of either set of grandparents nearby, Bennett said they hired their own Mary Poppins style nanny to help out, a woman who they now consider family.

“I kind of like that life imitated our art in that way,” Bennett said.

Mary Poppins is playing at Tuacahn through Oct. 22 alongside Wonderland and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the Tuacahn Amphitheatre and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story inside the Hafen Theatre. Get tickets online at www.tuacahn.org or by calling the box office at 435-652-3300.