“I’m a pink cupcake!”
Although many teens like to imagine looking so appealing as to be compared to a dessert, senior Emma Ream isn’t exaggerating. Her vibrant dress, one of her favorite creations for this year’s musical, is a sweet success.
“That’s one reason I love being on costuming,” Ream said. “I get first choice for my dress, and I can make it myself.”
Ream’s job as head of costuming consists of managing her team and communicating with the director, Dr. Butterworth.
“Although I don’t have creative control, I go back and forth with the director, and I design costumes and delegate certain jobs to people to help me out,” Ream said.
Because of the sheer volume of work, however, she collaborates with others, including members of the cast, fellow students in Technical Theatre, and surprisingly enough, Mrs. Abbey’s Fashion Design II students, who will help out with the actual sewing.
Although Ream works at school, a majority of the costumes are completed at home or with friends outside of Liberty.
“Just the other week, Lili Galluzzo, Elise Ferencz, Molly Keegan, and I got together on a Friday night to watch John Mulaney and cut pattern pieces for four hours,” Ream said. “I do a lot of the actual sewing at home because I like my machines, but I pretty much work wherever I can.”
Having performed in numerous shows with the Patriot Players, Ream couldn’t give up acting, even with the extensive time and effort required to manage costuming.
“For Patty, I have to memorize my lines and be in the moment, but costuming involves so much more time because you’re doing a job that covers the entire show,” Ream said.
This year, the costuming department has tried to make the whole process more manageable by taking advantage of costume rentals and reducing the number of costumes made from scratch.
“Last year, we made over forty costumes because Maddie Gholston decided to take on designing the costumes for the Hot Box girls. I remember that, and I look back in terror,” Ream said.
Although costuming is a lot of work, Ream loves all of it—her team, the process, and the satisfying final product.
“There’s always something fun, like when you put pieces together and it looks absolutely fantastic,” Ream said. “It’s a huge job, and I couldn’t possibly do it all by myself.”