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Imagine a place where all your favorite storybook characters come to life at night.

Students of the Lafayette Theatre Academy will introduce audiences to that magical spot during its production of “The Enchanted Bookshop” May 8-10 in the Black Box at Lafayette Society for Performing Arts.

Director Carol Cain said Kelly Finley, Lafayette Theatre Company’s artistic director, suggested the play because she thought it was tailor-made for Cain.

“She knows I appreciate and usually produce shows that are either based on famous children’s books or in this case, celebrate reading using famous characters from classic children’s books,” Cain said.

“When I read it, I thought there were marvelous, fun characters that I could envision my students bringing to life including Robin Hood, Pollyanna, Heidi, Sherlock Holmes, Tom Sawyer, Dorothy, Doctor Doolittle and Frankenstein.”

Now throw in Margie, the bookstore owner, along with book fairies, a picky mother and her two video-game loving kids, a bumbling police officer and several criminal roles that are juicy roles.

“I knew I had the caliber of students who could handle these parts and would enjoy the experience,” Cain said.

The bookstore cat is Bombalurina and can be portrayed both by a person and a puppet.

“This presented the wonderful opportunity to involve master puppeteer and assistant director Avery Jones, who will not only play the cat, but coach our LTA students in operating a variety of puppet characters who will appear throughout the play,” she said.

To add to the fun, several “Easter eggs” or hidden references to previous LTA shows like Winnie Pooh and Stuart Little will be scattered throughout the script.

The play is set in a bookstore called “A Likely Story.” By day, it sees very little business, but at night, magic happens when the book characters come to life.  They are determined to help Margie save her struggling store although they are not allowed to leave the building or be seen by human eyes.

Trouble comes when a stolen necklace is hidden inside a book in the store. Will the book characters continue to help Margie at the risk of disappearing forever?

The cast includes 32 students, ages 6 to 12, ranging from first grade to sixth grade.

“To create more opportunities for our students, I wrote a short play called ‘Story Hour’ that takes place in the same bookstore and brings to life some famous nursery rhymes and other storybook characters,” Cain said.

“Story Hour” will be somewhat of a prologue to “The Enchanted Bookshop” featuring students as famous fairy tale and Mother Goose characters.  Students will also act as puppeteers, bookstore customers or additional characters in the main production.

“Some of them are playing three different roles,” she said.

Audrey Jones, teaching assistant, also serves as stage manager and costumer.

“Audrey and her husband Avery are invaluable because they are super creative, full of ideas and committed to seeing our students succeed,” Cain said. “It makes my job so much easier and much more pleasant to share the load through a team approach.”

Show times are 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday. Tickets are $15 for students and $20 for adults.

For more information about purchasing tickets, visit LSPArts.org or call the business office at (706) 882-9909. The LSPA Black Box Theatre is at 214 Bull St. in downtown LaGrange.