---

It was unfamiliar territory, but then she's always been one to enter into the unknown.

"It's not my generation," said Mansfield native Angelina Mullins, talking about her role as a member of the national touring company of "Monty Python's Spamalot."

The show has brought her back home for the first time since she started touring with Broadway productions five years ago, when she was just 17.

"I didn't know a lot about it," she said of "Spamalot," a decidedly off-the-wall comedy very loosely based on the legend of King Arthur and the search for the Holy Grail. "But the humor's great."

Mullins, 22, is no stranger to the theater. She's been dancing since the age of 3, growing up as a member of the Boston Ballet. "I just always knew that was my calling," she said. "At that age, around 6 or 7, I think I wanted to be Angelina Ballerina. You just do what you want to do."

Progressing through the ballet company's rigorous "weeding out" process, she was accepted into the Broadway Theater Project - founded by Broadway heavyweights Gwen Verdon (widow of Bob Fosse), Ann Reinking and Debbie McWaters - when she was 13.

Having never really considered musical theater as a profession before that - though she did always have a desire to sing and act - she feels like she got lucky by just falling into it.

"Somehow, I'm so blessed," Mullins said. "Ann Reinking basically just goes around the country and selects kids. I auditioned, got in and fell in love. I had no idea of the whole world of Fosse. She completely took me under her wing."

That wing provided valuable training with voice coaches and casting directors that led to her decision, after graduating high school early, to venture out on her own.

Really, she said, it was just time to make a call on her calling.

She either could stay with Boston Ballet - which provided her with 10 years of professional dance experience, including the coveted role of Clara in its annual production of "The Nutcracker" - or take a chance on musicals.

"I never was scared about leaving," she said. "It was my time to leave the ballet world. It wasn't anything about leaving home, it was choosing. Something in me was like, this is right. Boston Ballet was going in a different direction and it was kind of a lot. And I just knew this was going to be the path I was going to go down."

She immediately landed a role in the national touring company of "Saturday Night Fever," which she did for a year and also performed with the Fosse national tour. She's been with "Spamalot" for 18 months, and the open-ended tour is scheduled to run through at least 2010.

But this is the first time she's been able to perform at home. "The audiences are great," Mullins said. "It's so good to be home. It's nice to come back."

With two years to go on this job, she hasn't thought too much about her next move, though she said she'd love someday to play either Velma or Roxy in "Chicago."

She's also thinking about getting into the film world, taking her developing acting talent to the big screen.

"I don't plan on doing theater forever. "Spamalot" is different than anything I've ever done, and it's definitely been a great experience, because it's kind of a stretch for me. It's comedic timing. Everyone is acting on stage the whole time," she said. "I keep thinking about moving forward. Whatever comes, I'm in no rush."

"Monty Python's Spamalot" is playing at the Opera House in Boston through Sunday. Tickets are $30-$90. (617-931-2787 or www.broadwayacrossamerica.com). It will be at the Providence Performing Arts Center Jan. 29 through Feb. 3. Tickets are $43-$75. (www.ppacri.org, or 401-421-ARTS)