Creating an idea in your head of a way the character could look, drawing it out, finding the materials and then presenting it.
Those are the tasks needed to audition as a costume designer.
Once the title is earned, it’s even more of a process designing the costumes and building them all before the show date arrives.
Junior Kylie Goins went through both procedures to become the costume designer for the one-act play “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane” this year.
“She had designs drawn for each character, her ideas and what the looks would look like,” theatre teacher Zac Jackson said. “She talked about how each character goes from one to the next and the quick changes in the costuming.”
“I am honestly really excited because I like doing costumes, I like creating stuff and the fact I was given this opportunity is nice,” Goins said.
Goins has a background in costume-making because she has her own party princess business called Kj’s Characters, serving around three to four parties a month. Along with that, Goins creates her costumes for the characters she does.
Goins must use her time wisely because she has to create not only the dolls needed for the show, but also the costumes.
She spends time in both her fourth and eighth periods creating the costumes and time at home and after school. It all totals up to about 40 hours perfecting the costumes each week.
Some of the costumes you will see on stage are handmade, such as a skirt and the main character Edward’s vest, but not all are.
Goins uses some costumes in the dressing room while buying a few extra materials to modify other clothes to fit the character.
“The materials are most of the time, I would hope would be from here,” Goins said. “Sometimes I have to go to Hobby Lobby because we don’t have the materials here.”
Describing the process as fun but frustrating at times, Goins is proud of how she improved her ability to sew throughout the design process.
“I am very proud because it has been a very stressful journey, but at the same time, I have accomplished a lot,” Goins said.
Jackson has “10 out of 1o” confidence in Goins’s ability to create costumes for the one-act play.
“She presented amazing ideas and concepts behind why each character is dressed that way, or they connect and tie with each other,” Jackson said. “They have their different character relationships with each other.”
