MOLLY BLAZE
COSTUME DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY
THE LITTLE
MERMAID
FEATS OF ENGINEERING
For this musical, in particular, it was vital for the engineering of the fantastical creatures to be cohesive with what the eye expects to see for the viewer to be fully immersed in the experience of being "under the sea".
For Ursula, I engineered an internal bulbous structure with attached articulating tentacles. Fishing line was added to provide the illusion that the side and rear tentacles had movement of their own due to physics as the actress moved; the front two tentacles were similarly attached to fishing line that connected to her wrists that could then be utilized more with gesturing and the raising of her arms.
Flotsam and Jetsam were created as puppets with articulating jaws, light up eyes, and a stuffed body that wrapped the full height and circumference of the actress atop a base costume that looked "electrical".
Mermaid Realism
It's not uncommon knowledge that the renditions of mermaid costumes that have been produced leave a little bit wanting for the imagination. Actors atop a tower of "seaweed" with a floating tail behind them, long sweeping skirt tails articulated by fishing line attached to the arm and the like - I have personally yet to see a costume design that didn't take me out of the imaginative world with its distracting elements that didn't read realistically enough. For The Little Mermaid, I specifically draped, patterned and constructed the pictured silhouette complete with padded hips to emulate the iconic and expected silhouette of a mermaid complete with fins attached to fishing line for the actresses to have full control over their fish-like swimming movements.
Creating Ariel, as with all of the mermaids, posed its own unique set of challenges. As previously mentioned, I have never seen costumes for the mermaids of this show for which I was artistically satisfied. Through my own engineering, draping, and patterning, I developed a mermaid silhouette that was both functional and aesthetic - the actress could climb stairs, kneel down, walk and dance. In addition to this, Ariel's mer-suit had to be transformational on stage to go from mermaid to "sea legs" and back. I developed a system of hidden snaps to be able to attach and remove her mer-tail while on stage.
Fish out of Water
(and Back Again)
How do you make an actor on stage appear like they're drowning in a sea of water? Or a boat appear to be sailing across seas? Through team collaboration with the choreographer, director, lighting/sfx designer and myself as costume designer we adeptly achieved immersing the actors and audience, alike, in an experiential sea adventure.
Emulating
Water
O
P
rnate
layful
ibrant
V
Costume Designer/Technician/Supervisor/Craftsperson: Molly Blaze (as Molly McKinley)
Director/Lighting Designer: Tyler Hutchinson
Photographer: Ronnie Sunker
Set Designer: Jared Thornton