Shelby Norris, Author
April 12, 2023
Just as much as we love to see the headliners and lead performers in this year’s musical The Little Mermaid, it is always important to see who is behind the scenes, putting everything together and making sure the costumes fit properly! We present to you our wonderful costume design crew for this year’s musical. I had the honor of interviewing the behind-the-scenes crew. We hope you enjoy the interview!
Costume Design Cast:
Patty Miller
Amy Glovier
Cindy Verdi
Michelle Shaffer
Connie
Q-How long have you been helping with costume design for musicals?
Connie-This is my first year
Cindy- This is my second year helping with costumes
Michelle-I’ve been helping for about 12 years
Amy-I helped with costumes in high school with my mom and dad at Sharon High. But this is my first year at New Castle
Patty- This is my first year working in costume design. For the past few years, I have helped Mr. Lee’s mom in ticket sales and front hall activities during the play.
Q-What is your favorite part of helping with costume design?
Connie-The end result and getting to know the cast
Cindy- My favorite part of helping with the costumes is seeing how something plain and simple turn into something so beautiful and sparkly
Michelle- My favorite part about costume designing is seeing the students bring our creations to life on stage
Amy-My favorite part is getting to know all the kids and other ladies in the costume room
Patty-Getting to see how it all comes together from beginning to end
Q-How is the process of costume design going for this musical?
Connie- The process has gone great
Cindy- This year the process of designing the costumes was a bit challenging. There is a lot of detail on the costumes which means a lot more sewing.
Michelle- For this musical, we created our own versions of the characters and sea creatures. I usually put my ideas on paper first, draw the design then create patterns for our sewing team. It’s going really well we all work great together
Amy-It was a long process this year but well worth it
Patty- Challenging at times but fun
Q-What is the most challenging part of costume design for this particular musical?
Connie- To make every costume perfect
Michelle-I’d say the most challenging designs for this musical were Ursula and Sebastian. Mr. Bogaert did an amazing job on the tentacles, after some brainstorming ideas, we finally got Ursula to come together. I did a lot of drawing of Sebastian until I got the look we were going for. I drew up some patterns and the sewing team took it from there. A lot of time and love goes into our creations.
Amy- The most challenging part was transforming the vision of Mr. Lee into a working reality
Patty-There are so many unique costumes and challenges for some scenes in this musical and it can be very difficult on the costumes
Q-What are you most looking forward to for the show?
Connie-Watching the cast come to life
Cindy- I am most looking forward to seeing the cast shine and seeing the hard work and everything come together
Michelle- Im most looking forward to watching the show from start to finish. I see bits and pieces of the show during practice. seeing our creations come to life is a feeling, it makes all those hours and late nights so worth it.
Amy- I am looking forward to watching the cast come to life as the characters, and to have the audience fall in love with the cast we have.
Patty- I can’t wait to sit in the audience on Saturday and watch the play. Working behind the scenes you don’t get to see many of the kids on stage and I truly look forward to seeing it because there is so much talent in this awesome group of students
Thanks for taking the time to chat with us!
