 | This Week’s Author Ava Tolley This week’s LITTLE MERMAID updates is written by senior Ava Tolley. Ava is an ITS Member and is portraying the role of Sebastian in this season’s production of DISNEY’S THE LITTLE MERMAID. |
Week 3 of DISNEY’S THE LITTLE MERMAID was a struggle between snow days, early dismissals and sickness, but never the less everyone fought through and made this week exciting. The cast worked extra hard on our third workday this past Saturday to make up lost time from throughout the week.
As an audience member of one of our shows, a costume might look like it just appears and people might not realize how much time and work really goes into each and every costume. Demetra Tolley, the show’s costume director, says, “Most people have no idea what it takes behind the scenes to costume the whole cast for any given show… especially given elaborate nature of many sea creature costumes. The process starts months before auditions… brainstorming, planning, and shopping online. Once auditions occur and the show is casted every student is meticulously measured as these measurements are needed time and time again throughout the process. This year every costume is being custom made meaning none will be rented and only a handful will be purchased. Many students are casted in multiple roles and some students will have 3 costumes. In total this year, 102 costumes will have to be made.”
Production Director, Adam Bledsoe, added, “Our costumes play an intricate role in our story telling. It is humbling to see the amazing items that Demetra Tolley and Amy Scheller produce for each show. They go above and beyond each show to make sure the cast members look their best on stage. The work days are always inspiring to see fabric stretched down the back hallway, parents with sewing machines in the dressing room, and cast members trying on costumes for the first time. Costumes are also very important for our cast members to feel like the characters they are portraying, and we wouldn’t be able to achieve the same level of success without the hard work that they two individuals put in.”
The whole cast is very eager to continue this journey into week 4. You can follow along with the cast and crew every week for the next 7 weeks. Don’t forget to mark your calender for March 11-13, 2022 for DISNEY’S THE LITTLE MERMAID. We can’t wait to see you all there!
