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Newsies

@ Murfreesboro Center for the Art 2019

Newsies

   I was desperate to work on a production of Newsies in one way or another. To my luck, my friend Lisa McLaurin was costuming the Center for the Arts show and was in need of an assistant, for which I gladly volunteered as tribute. I was brought on closer to the end of the show and was the on hand costumer for the run of the show. doing anything and everything that was needed in the middle of the run. My projects on the show were the three nuns habits, which were very hard to photograph and none turned out well enough to see anything, altering a rented skirt to make it long enough for our Katherine, creating Katherine's bow ties for her signature looks, and tailoring anything odd piece that needed elastic, a button, or a hem.

   During the run there were many things that went awry, including but not limited to; seams splitting mid-kick, buttons going flying in the middle of a dance breaks, zippers getting suck in the middle of a quick change, and vests splitting up the back just after a solo. When I say we had one pair of pants split three times in one show, I am not exaggerating, even though I wish I was. After the third time, myself and the stage manager,ran into the costume closet, found the only pair of pants that would fit our actor, reinforced the couch seam, cut off the legs, and added elastic to the hem. It was a very excited night to say the least.

   My favorite thing to create was the bow ties for Katherine. Lisa gave me ribbon options and said make whatever you want. I probably spent 4 hours just looking at pictures of bows from the time period and figuring out which Katherine would wear and which styles would be possible for me to make. When it came to the center of the bows, I really wanted to get a small silhouette, but with the time restraints I wasnt able to get my hands on one, so I used a button that was given to me by my aunt that I thought gave it a good bit of glamour without being too loud.

   Photos are by Ashleigh Newnes

   BroadwayWorld's review can be found here. Please keep in mind that the writer of this article does not like Newsies at all and slams the play itself more than the presentation our EXTREMELY talented cast gave.

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