Senior designs costumes from home for upcoming performance

COVID-19 causes challenges for school activities

Used+with+permission+from+Ella+Miller+

Used with permission from Ella Miller

Jayde Claussen

With the COVID-19 outbreak, students have had to adapt to the changes made by the school administration in order to ensure the safety of everyone. Senior Ella Miller, the costume designer for the upcoming performance “Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Show at Park,” said adjustments have had to be made to adapt.

“Typically, we have actors come into the costume room and try on their outfits, and they just kinda come in and out of the room, but right now the process we have is to create individual bags for every actor,” Miller said. “Hair and Makeup will also be different (for) this show because usually, we’re all in a room together and everyone can work together. It will be a new experience to try to help people who might not know how to do their hair or makeup,” Miller said.

According to sophomore Ruby Livon, a fellow costume designer, the costume crew is working with students to use what they can find at home.

“This year it’s a lot more of how can we work around what people have already at their homes and without really going shopping very much because we can’t really go places and be together to do what we normally would,” Livon said.

Miller said while collaborating with fellow students is slightly more challenging, everyone is doing what they can to ensure they are collectively working to the best of their ability.

“(Its) not hard (to work with other students) it’s a bit more difficult right now because of Zoom and how we’re all distanced, but we all usually communicate really well with each other, and we’re trained to do the best that we can in these circumstances right now,” Miller said. 

Livon said that while the costume crew is all working together, Miller has taken initiative as the most experienced and guided her peers.

“(Miller is) not officially in charge, but she is definitely the leader. She’s a senior and has been doing this since she was a freshman so she’s very good at (costume design), and she (is) really good at reading everything from the right direction and helping make sure everything gets done,” Livon said. 

According to Miller, seeing students perform again will be refreshing considering many other productions are to remain virtual until next fall.

“I’m looking forward to seeing people and their outfits on stage. It would be really cool to see people on a stage again, especially since right now even bigger productions like Broadway aren’t opening up until next year. It’s cool that we’re still able to do some of this stuff,” Miller said. 

Livon said she has hopes that this show will be a source of light during these hard times.

“I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how all this comes together. COVID-19 has forced us to have a really abnormal experience, and this show will hopefully prove to be good. We’ll get to see something really unique come out of it rather than a normal show,” Livon said. 

The performance will be performed in person at a later date, which is currently undecided. To find out more information about the performance, click here.