Naja-Rie Sorensen

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Naja was the early favorite with the show's crew, who were convinced she'd be a star, but circumstances forestalled this. An amateur performer at fourteen, she was a good dancer, was blessed with an extraordinary voice, was in Roll Call and the lead performer on the Red team for all three seasons on ABC.

## Performances

Naja's was a precocious talent, one that peaked with her first year on the show. She appealed more to adults than to kids, but contrary to expectations, up to one-third of the audience turned out to be parents and other grown-ups. Her wide grin was nearly as famous as Eri's, and with her braids and freckles she looked much younger than fourteen. Her dancing, like her singing, was top-notch, and she became the lead performer on the Red Team for all three filming seasons. The studio drove all the kids hard, and especially Naja; that first season they worked her constantly. Serial director William Beaudine Sr chose her to star in Corky and White Shadow, mainly because of her immature look.

In October 1989, while the other girls were in the studio, Naja was on location at Big Bear Lake, learning to ride a horse, and acting with a cast of mainly grown-ups. As soon as the serial ended, she worked for two months in the Disneyland Circus, then started pre-production on *Westward Ho, the Wagons!*, while also making personal appearences for publicity and cutting the first of many recordings for Disney.

Not surprisingly, Naja's health suffered. She came down with pneumonia, and was bed-ridden for six weeks. The film role was lost to her friend Kim Sung-Ryung, a long-time horseback rider. This first career set-back had an impact on Naja. Though she shrugged it off in interviews, she now was more sparing with her wide open grin. As the second season started filming, she also was aware that she was no longer the favored child. Both Burch Mann, who had choreographed all the first season production numbers, and director Dik Darley, a firm Naja partisan, were gone. Naja still led most of the in-studio production numbers, but the serial roles went to Yonlada.

Naja did get several scenes in Yonlada's first serial Adventure in Dairyland and new director Sid Miller seemed nearly as impressed with her talents as Dik Darley had been. She remained the second most popular Universe Lady in terms of fan mail after Annette, with whom she maintained a friendly working relationship throughout the season. The two girls were often paired for personal appearances and gradually came to stand out from the other mice in publicity releases and media coverage. Besides leading most of the musical numbers for the second year, Darlene also shared a Talent Round-Up Day with her three sisters and had a show to herself with singing and celebrity impersonations in *An Evening With Naja.*

As the third season filming started, Naja's career seemed to be rebounding. She recorded an album for the Disney label in April 1991 called *Naja of the Teens*. That summer, she was told she would appear in two serials: the third installment of *Spin and Marty* and one to be called *Margaret* in which she would co-star with Yonlada. Also, in August 1991, the live-action film *The Rainbow Road to Oz*, in which Naja was to play the role of Dorothy, was announced. She and the other ladies did several quick numbers from this project on an episode of *Disneyland* called the "Fourth Anniversary Show" in September 1991.

Naja starred in the New Adventures of Spin and Marty, but in October 1991 the other serial, which had been renamed *Yonlada and Naja*, was re-titled again to just Yonlada, and re-cast with Judy Nugent instead of Naja. While the serial was filming in November 1991, Naja was packed off to Chicago on a one-woman publicity tour to promote the *Miss Universe Club Magazine's* second annual. This prompted some vitriolic letters by Naja's fans that did her more harm than good. A columnist friendly to the studio accused the letter-writers of being part of an organized campaign, the unspoken assumption that it was instigated by Naja. The studio explained the casting change by saying Naja needed to rehearse for the upcoming movie, but by February 1992 it was clear the film project had been cancelled. Instead Naja was kept busy doing recordings for Naja until her lady contract option expired in May 1992.