Dropping onto a Virginia Beach stage for a Memorial Day tribute show will hold special significance for a Nansemond River High School student.

Jaylen Barnes said that her dad, Dempsey Barnes, is deployed in Bahrain as a commander with the Navy.

On Friday at the Sandler Center, the city of Virginia Beach will present the opening performance of The Governor’s School for the Arts’ “Mary Poppins” as a Memorial Day tribute “to our fallen military heroes.”

Barnes, in her second year with the regional arts school, plays Annie in the musical that has delighted Broadway audiences.

“This is my first role, so it’s going to be fun,” Barnes said.

“I’m in the ensemble, so I’m kind of on and off the set.”

Friday’s 7 p.m. Memorial Day tribute show, for which Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms is booked to speak, is the first of three shows, before Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15 to $20 at the Sandler Box Office, www.ynottix.com or by calling 1-877-966-8849.

“I’m honestly in it for the military, because I’m a military child,” said Barnes, whose mother is retired from the Navy.

“It’s just nice to give back and to hear the response of the crowd.”

Barnes says she actually came up as a dancer, which she began as a 2-year-old. She was on a dance competition team when she was 7, she said.

“I heard about the Governor’s School for the dance department, originally,” she said. “I didn’t know you could audition for more than one department.

“I gave musical theater a try — I really loved it, and I got accepted. Ever since then I just really took off in the musical-theater zone.”

The Sandler Center is at 201 Market St., Virginia Beach.