From Director Lori Crews’ work on the costumes to junior Thomas Martin learning tap dance, the cast and crew of The Little Mermaid collaborated to bring the musical to life.
Senior Jayden Southerland found herself in the role of a makeup artist by sheer chance, using self-taught techniques to take on a new position.
“This was my first time doing fantasy makeup,” Southerland said. “However, I’ve always been really into doing makeup on myself and others, and I have learned various techniques throughout the years.”
The cast members worked not only on makeup but also on styling the wigs. Junior Ellie Stayton played the role Flounder while also styling each wig on her own time.
“I took about 15 or 16 wigs home to style them by refreshing the curls with heatless curlers, steaming, and/or setting them with hairspray,” Stayton said.
Though actors contributed to the technical efforts, Crews researched and worked to hand-make Ursula’s tentacles. Crews measured, cut, sewed and stuffed all eight of the tentacles connected to Ursula’s costume herself.
“I got a big piece of fabric for the purple and the black, and then I layered those together,” Crews said. “I measured out 15 inches on the upper side and I measured it down to a point, cut all of those apart and sewed them together. The stuffing took longer than anything else.”
Other actors faced a different set of challenges — learning a new type of dance, mastering a new accent and pushing through the difficulties that arose during rehearsals and performances.
Martin, who played the role of Scuttle, learned to tap dance while singing the song “Positoovity.”
“I think the most challenging part [of playing Scuttle] was definitely learning the tap dance,” Martin said.
While tap dance required precision and stamina, an equally difficult task awaited junior Gabe Litchfield: learning how to speak with a convincing Jamaican accent.
“My most challenging part as Sebastian was learning the Jamaican accent and learning how to sing with it,” Litchfield said. “It was not easy.”
Throughout the musical, many of the roles required costume changes, including junior Iris Cox who had nine costume changes in a single act as Ariel.
“The most challenging part of being Ariel was that all nine of my costume changes were in Act II,” Cox said. “In most of the scenes, I had to change into my next costume.”
From mastering makeup to learning new dance styles and accents, the cast and crew proved that putting on The Little Mermaid required far more than what audiences saw onstage. The cast’s creativity, dedication, and teamwork brought the production to life—one wig, tap step, and costume change at a time.
