Beyond My Wildest Dreams: Disney's the Little Mermaid at HopeBox Theatre

Jamila Lowe
Aug 29, 2017
12 min read

Updated: Oct 8, 2020

Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat? I think so! As a young girl my imagination ran rampant with dreams of mermaids and princesses. Naturally, when the the opportunity to design costumes for possibly the most iconic mermaid was offered, I jumped right aboard!

It has now been a year since wrapping up work on this this production of Little Mermaid and my heart is still full. I have taken time to reflect on this wild adventure in my life and would like share my memories, give some insights, but mostly offer my experience to anyone who needs a little extra encouragement in following their dreams. So without further ado I present my top 10 Community Theater Costumer Tips!

Working with the HopeBox Theatre has been a wonderful experience. If you haven't heard of this wonderful theatre by now please check them out hopeboxtheatre.com. Their mission, "bringing hope to families who are battling cancer through the performing arts," is a fresh take on community theater. Owner and founder Jan Williams, is a 3 time cancer survivor, now battling cancer for the 4th time and kicking it's butt! Her dream to open a theatre that sponsored individuals, "wall of hope recipients," within the community battling cancer, came true in October 2014.

Jan inspired my Community Theater Costumer Tip #1: Love what you do, and do what you love! For Jan it was her dream to open a theater. For me it is the opportunity and courage to showcase my designs. I know now that you should be your number one supporter. If you believe in yourself, others will follow. Doors will begin to open and soon enough "someday" will be today.

For this production we got to sponsor our very own little mermaid, Miss Sophie Jacobsen. Here is her story from the HopeBox Website.

"Meet Sophie, she is seven years old. Last fall, during one of her soccer games, she noticed that her hip was in pain. At first her and her family didn't think anything of it, and just passed it off as growing pains. Later, this spring, the pain in her hip got worse, and the family decided to take her to the doctors. After some blood tests, they decided to do a biopsy. After a few days of waiting, on Thursday April 28th, they found out that she has pelvic bone cancer. Sophie has started chemo treatment.

The Jacobsen family is a wonderful and humble family, and are very sadden by the news. They are a young family, with two lovely kids, and they are expecting their third child later this fall. Sophie has a very fun personality, she loves stuffed animals, playing with her friends and younger brother, visiting and shopping at the Disney Store, and pretty flowers. She is a very strong independent girl, and cares deeply for her family, friends, and the world around her."

Talk about theater with a cause! Can it get any better than that? Yes, yes it can! One of the most wonderful things about community theater are the people. The bubbly outgoing, yet ever so slightly over dramatic personalities, exuding talent that are passionate about their art. These are the people that made a script come to life.

Ready to meet some of the fun cast? Here they are!

Ariel - Katelynn Ostler

Prince Eric - Jeff Erickson

Sebastian - Joey Lee

Scuttle - Drew Anderson

Flounder - Kesley Turner

Ursula - Kirsten Jacobsen

These are just some of the faces that bring one of my favorite stories from under the sea to life. Auditions brought so many talented individuals it was decided to completely double cast the show with the exception of King Triton and Scuttle. So many characters contributed to this colorful, sparkly, true Disney show. This show is packed full of classics you know and love such as Part of Your World and Under the Sea. There are plenty of new songs as well. Scuttle and his tap dancing seagulls singing Positovity. My personal favorite is Flounder and the Mersisters showstopper song She's In Love. Let's not forget that every villain needs her moment as Ursula explains to us her woes in Daddy's Little Girl.

One of the things I love most about HopeBox is the commitment and love each cast member, crew and production staff has to the mission. The beating heart of this particular theater relies on selfless service. Which leads me to Community Theater Costumer Tip #2: Love your volunteers! I always had a constant flow of excited volunteers. Everyone from Jellyfish #4 to Ariel jumped in and helped out. Even Scuttle pitched in, sewing buttons on vests.

The costume team consisting of several key costumers; Stephanie Bruckman, Kathy Richmond, Lindsay Blackman and Kelsey Porter kept production going and spirits high. Community Theater Costumer Tip #3: Surround yourself with good people. I learned during Tarzan that picking friends as your costume team can have it's advantages and disadvantages. It can be hard on friendships when one person has to lead and the other support. I took a different approach with Little Mermaid. I went with individuals I didn't necessarily know on personal level, but knew of their personality and work ethic fit well with my style of leading. Together we form a team where we take turns being lead designer and supporting each other's vision. Collaboration is what costuming is all about.

The team pictured above sewed on over 5,000 glass beads creating a wave pattern for Ariel's wedding gown. She only wore it for the final scene but we wanted her to still feel like a mermaid even with legs. Her beaded veil included seashells and a blue sash with a starfish completed the look. The hard part was making it simple for her 30 second costume change. Here is the final product.

Costumes were all over the place! A sea witch on a moving platform with 10 foot tentacles, her dress weighing in at 40 lbs. Eels with lights sewn onto their costumes. Mermaids with tails they could dance in. Sailor costumes that could easily convert to chef costumes. Jelly fish with umbrellas and lights and so many sea creatures. 6 very ugly princesses, tap dancing seagulls, and of course a very angry crustacean.

Costume design for a show is a lengthy process. Aligning the director's vision and your designs is the always the first step. It is important to understand the scope of the show as a whole as the end result should look aesthetically pleasing. Working closely with set, lightening and sound design as well as the stage and prop managers is crucial in achieving the desired look. The next step is researching, creating a vision board and of course assessing the established costume stock.

Community Theater Costumer Tip #4: Donations, donations, DONATIONS. We all know budgets can be limited so don't turn away from freebies! See that trunk full of fabric? We got it for free from a University that was cleaning out their fabric room for the season. That's Flounder waiting to be made along with all the sailor shirts and so much more!

The rehearsal process was another beast to tackle. It never occurred to me how creative we would have to get. Do you know how hard it is to find a pattern for a mermaid tail? We took some strange measurements for this show. The actors needed to resemble sea creatures and yet be able to dance, sit down and even kick.

We ended up taking donated mermaid style prom dresses and cutting the bottoms off. We then cut out stretchy dance material to form pencil skirt. Next added tulle to give the skirts a fin look. After sewing them together we added unique belts and walla! Mermaid tails.

Next we tackled shells. I pity the poor unfortunate soul who has to take on creating these monsters! They are impossible to make not look chintzy. We tried and failed about a dozen times. Each stage is different and because ours is so close to the audience we decided on using jumbo plastic shells we bought from Zurchers as our base. We had to get creative on coverage because the shells were so big. I ended up shaving them down (Ariel), cutting one shell in half (Red Mermaid), and we even added conch shells (Blue and Green Mermaids) to switch up the look.

Using mod podge we covered the plastic shells and then painted them in the right color. Another layer of mod podge and sprinkled glitter across the top. We then pulled the applique and jewels off the donated prom dresses to embellish the shells. The end result was quit nice. The next task was attaching them. We didn't want to destroy the actor's strapless bras so we came up with a simple solution. Using leftover stretchy fin material we made a tube bra for each of the mermaids. We then placed Velcro "strategically" on the fabric to hold the shells in place and mirrored that same pattern on the shells. Oddly enough it worked like a charm! The adhesive Velcro cemented itself to the plastic shells and worked very well for us.

My participation in this show didn't end with costuming. I was lucky enough to be cast in the show as Ariel's sister Andrina (Green Mermaid). Building such a unique show from scratch and rehearsing for it is something no one can prepare you for. I learned to adapt to no sleep and lots of Dr. Pepper, but man did it pay off!

Here is a behind the scene look at our pop up costume shop. Don't mind the mess, it's a happy one! This room doubles as the Women's Dressing room during performances.

We decided early on that our direction for this show would be colonial style. We chose to put Sebastian in a colonial style wig including an ascot, knickers, a waist coat that were all varying shades of red. We include a sparkly red vest so when he took off his coat for Under the Sea he would stand out next to all the colorful sea creatures. My favorite touch were the crab claws we found on Amazon. Who knows why they exist, but we were thankful!

We wanted Flounder's costume to be youthful and fun! Putting her in a lederhosen instead of the traditional puffer fish ensemble to showcase her movements. At first it sounded weird but it worked very well for this production. Her shoes were even painted to match her costume.

The choreography for the Scuttle and his tap dancing seagulls was so lively I knew we needed to match that energy visually. Each seagull was unique in their movement and vocal performance but we wanted the scene to look cohesive. The Seagulls were put in the same outfit, letting them switch up their makeup made them really stand out. They also picked out their own buttons for their vest, a hodge podge of thinga mabobs! Their songs were Sophie's favorite and she always asked to come watch rehearsals when they were performing.

The biggest challenge was Ursula. We wanted her to stand out. Jan, the director, had the idea of hanging 15 foot tentacles from the ceiling and lowering them down for her to step into for her scenes. The idea was that she would overtake the stage and even go out into the audience. Unfortunately the engineering was beyond our capabilities. We settled on 10 foot tentacles that we attached to a rolling platform. The dress was built and the platform constructed. The 10 foot tentacles were stuffed with everything from batting to newspaper, even pillows were thrown in for good measure. Ursula would stand in the platform and Eels would push her around. It sounded easy enough to rig but when it came time to block the scene it was just, well ... boring! By now we were 2 weeks away from opening with this tentacle platform that we all hated.

Community Theater Costumer Tip #5: It is okay to fail! Sometimes a costume doesn't work out as awesome as your brain thinks it will. Sometimes, Ursula has to step out of her tentacles to dance and that's alright.

This leads me to Community Theater Costumer Tip #6: Avoid the critics! It always amazes me what people say about someone else's work. There is something so raw and vulnerable about sharing your art. It's nerve racking putting your work out there to be judged by complete strangers not to mention your family and friends. I allowed myself to be extremely hurt the previous year during a production of Tarzan and vowed that during Little Mermaid I would step away from negative opinions. I would instead focus on if the designs met the needs of the production and if I was proud of my creations. People may judge you but guess what? You just costumed a show of 100 people in 3 months from scratch. Pretty darn tootin' awesome if you ask me!

Wig and makeup design is always my favorite part about designing a show. Something about wigs just brings the whole show together. We wanted to manifest the beauty of this Disney classic but had no budget for wigs. Which bring me too Community Theater Costumer Tip #7: Get creative! You can make a wig out of foam, fabric, old wigs, even plastic if you just get thinking.

For Ursula I cut up several cheap Halloween hairpieces. Using spray adhesive I formed the shape I wanted with the plastic hair and combed then into the desired shape as I sprayed them down. Next I pulled a beat up old mad scientist wig out of the donation box and formed the base. After letting the pieces dry I tetras-ed the pieces in and sewed them to the wig cap base. Obviously not the highest quality wig but the price was right, free!

I let both Ursula's chose the style they liked for makeup. Both involved tentacles Incorporated in their eye makeup and very exaggerated eyebrows. Because she appears 99% of the time in the dark we did a lot of contouring.

We wanted Flotsam and Jetsam to match Ursula, so they appeared in black. To make their faces stand out we used a lot of white highlighting with other eerie colors. Their costumes were accented with the same purple sparkle fabric that made up Ursula's tentacles. Included were light up shoes that we changed every scene. Word to the wise, these shoes don't last long. They started glitching about half way through our run. They also had lights that lead from the the top of their head and down one arm.

The picture above was the first makeup run through. In the end result shown below we added purple lips and purple gems to their faces to liven them up even more.

Our sea creatures, including Mermaids were asked to create their own look using several examples. Incorporating craft store gems, pearls and even sequins the cast looked like the brightly colored fish in you would find in King Triton's court We used eyeliners for lipstick to get the bright colors on stage. Sebastian and Flounder's makeup was more of a makeup mask. turning them into creatures.

We wanted the Mersisters to look over the top next to their little sister Ariel. We came up with the idea to add ombre colored wigs to the Mersisters so we'd have color but not end up with the cheesy Halloween style wigs. The headband in Aquata's hair is a loofah! You never know what treasures you can find at the dollar store.

The cast and crew were always busy doing something. One of the highlights of the summer was entering a float in the Kaysville and Farmington 4th of July parades. The day before the parade I realized that Ariel would be sitting on a rock at the back of the float flipping her fin .... WAIT! There was no fin! Her costume was made to look like a fin but not meant for people to see the bottom because they would see feet!

Community Theater Costumer Tip #8: Don't Panic! It will all work itself out. The solution we came up with was haphazard and rushed but it did the trick. With the help of a my ingenious husband we cut out a cardboard shape of a fin. Next using the cardboard as a pattern, we cut out a fin from leftover green fabric, did a gather stitch up the center and placed the cardboard cutout inside the fabric fin. Once it was stuffed and velcro sewn to both the bottom of the skirt and the fin, it looked great! Thank our lucky stars it worked!

Both parades were a big success. We even won most creative float in one of the parades. HopeBox Theatre is definitely making a splash in the community. I think it's safe to say these happy faces will make many excited to join the ever growing HopeBox family.

Closing night of Little Mermaid was all about Sophie! Sophie is our Little Mermaid. Each night before we would end rehearsal or begin a show, our cast cheer was always "Sophie!" We invited Sophie and her family to be our guests for closing night. Before the show we presented Sophie with her very own Ariel costume and wig. She was then given front row seats and all the goodies her heart desired.

After the show we brought her up on stage to present her with a HopeBox and the donation money along with many other presents the cast had brought. Sophie ended the night by hanging her name along with Jan and the other recipients on the "Wall of Hope."

Community Theater Costumer Tip #9: Find your Sophie. It has been over a year and the cast still loves the updates we get on Sophie. Sophie on her first day of school, her new baby brother, singing in church, her 8th birthday, her make a wish adventure and her last day of radiation. Each time I get an update my heart is filled with love for this sweet little girl and her strong family. That smile right there is what the HopeBox Theatre is all about.

Looking back on Little Mermaid is bitter sweet. Every moment was filled with some new and exciting challenge. I am so grateful for how this show impacted my life. I was given the encouragement to share my creations and courage to live my dreams. More than that I was inspired to get out of my own head. Theater is such a competitive, sometimes selfish social experiment, we all need to be reminded why we started doing it in the first place. I realize not every theater can have a Sophie but each of us has the capacity to love and support ourselves in addition to each other. My advice, pick something you love, and do it well. It's only fitting to end with one last tip.

Community Theater Costumer Tip #10: Make it count.