The Little Mermaid

Director: Rachel Hutchins
Assistant Director: Laura Williams-French
Tech Director: Mark French
Set Design: Mark Kuntz

The Little Mermaid is always a fun show. It’s got so many opportunities for spectacle and visuals. Due to a huge gift from a parent, we were able to add 20 more ETC ColorSource Spot Jrs., four short throw laser projectors, and two computers I built for designing in Unreal Engine and Blender. These new LED instruments were much needed in the space as there were only 14 LED pars and 20 conventional Source4 Ellipsoidal instruments to cover a 40’x30’ stage. It is a challenging stage to light as the proscenium teaser hangs at 14’ so there are no high angles to reach upstage.

As we were discussing this show and thinking about the possibilities, I had the idea of developing our sets in Unreal Engine and projection mapping them with QLab on all of the soft and hard surfaces of our stage. Mark Kuntz designed a tiered stage with angled front flats and plenty of projection drapery. I mapped and masked this between 6 laser projectors, 4 on stage and two from the booth. We broke up each scene into animations, loops, and transitions. Transition videos brought us into the scene, and video loops held the scene during action and dialog. Then animations helped augment movement through a space.

One of my favorite animation scenes was a waltz during the song One Step Closer. Ariel is exploring the castle with Prince Eric, they did spins across the upper platform on the stage and the room rotated to reveal a patio outside and the sun set. It was another moment where we heard the audience gasp.

For the lighting, we created different color palettes for the different locations; Triton’s palace, Eric’s palace, Ariel’s grotto, Ursula’s cave, Scuttle’s beach, and Chef Louis’ kitchen. It helped guide the audience through the different locations. Having the new ColorSource Spot Jrs. helped us begin to dial in the color palettes individually without adding more conventional instruments with gels.