Madelynn Baugh (’27) and Avery Hubosky (’26) captured audiences in Cherokee’s 2025 fall production of “The Little Mermaid” as Ursula.
Ursula is a sea witch who is determined to take over her brother Triton’s throne. Tired of living in exile, she devises a plan that will surely get her what she wants, highlighted in her famous song “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”
Baugh has been acting since she was about five or six. She had been trying out different things to find her passion, including art classes and sports. After being in a production of “Peter Pan Jr.,” she knew that she had found her calling.
She says that one of the things that drew her to theater is how “storytelling is one of the oldest forms of entertainment that we have. The foundation of entertainment is telling stories.”
Hubosky also rejected sports and instead decided to join DeMasi middle school’s production of “Shrek Jr.” She loved the director and cast, and the experience compelled her to continue with theater.
Some of Baugh’s favorite roles in the past have been Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde Jr.,” Cady Heron in “Mean Girls,” a role she’s taken on three times, and Delilah in “Between the Lines.” Hubosky has played Martha in “White Christmas,” Ms. Darbus in “High School Musical,” and Dragon in “Shrek.”
Interestingly enough, neither of our Ursulas had played a true villain before, so this was a new experience for them both; and since Ursula is such an iconic villain, her shoes were big ones to fill.
Baugh says, “It’s been really, really cool to play a different kind of character that like, has like a mean side to her. “It’s been cool to be mean. I don’t usually do that.”
Hubsoky called the experience “freeing” because she got to “play someone that’s so opposite from how you act in real life.”
Baugh and Hubosky both gave great answers when asked about their favorite characters in the musical. Baugh said Ariel, and called her story “empowering.”
“To believe in something so strongly that you know nothing about but to believe with your whole self that it’s where you’re supposed to be and what you want, I think it is so powerful,” she said.
“We all have goals for ourselves, we all have dreams for ourselves, we don’t know what it takes to get there or what it will entail once we do get there, but we know it’s what we want, and as people we’re driven to go for it.”
Hubosky said she likes Sebastian.
“He is just like the character where you’re trying so hard to get one thing done and nothing is working out for you, and I feel like everybody can relate to that, so you kind of watch him learn to relax a bit and let dreams be other people’s dreams and figure out where he aligns in those dreams,” she told us.
Baugh was most excited for people to see Ursula’s well-known number, “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”
“It’s such an iconic number.”
She also said that she hadn’t seen any of the other numbers, which probably also influenced that choice. Hubosky was most excited for people to see “Under the Sea,” also because she hadn’t seen it yet.
For Baugh, the best part of performing is being able to inspire people. She remembers being younger and seeing the Cherokee shows.
“I feel like this was always my dream of like, this was where I was going to be one day. I wanted to be up there one day,” she said.
Her least favorite part of performing is the common theme of comparison that occurs with theater.
“I feel like sometimes people can get so caught up in like, ‘oh well this person can do this thing, and I can’t do this thing, and so therefore I am not good anymore,’ you know what I mean?”
Hubosky’s favorite thing about performing is the amazing people she gets to do it with, as well as “getting to be kids again for a little bit, dress up, and act like an idiot sometimes.” Her least favorite part is the hour or so before the curtain rises and pre-show anxieties are high.
“But once it starts flowing, you’re like, okay you got it,” she said.
Embodying that “spooky scary” persona in a show is a special thing, especially with a role as iconic as Ursula. Taking that on is not an easy task, but clearly, Baugh and Hubosky pulled it off like pros.
