Costumers, Crews Bolster Tried Stage Talent in Producing 'Aida' at East

The premiere production of Elton John and Tim Rice's renowned musical Aida – a test run in Atlanta before being fine-tuned for Broadway – was originally billed as Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida.

That long, bipartite title did not survive to crowd a marquee on the Great White Way. But "elaborate lives" could certainly describe the experience of more than 100 members of the Tosa East Players for the past couple of months as they prepared for yet another full-scale, no-corners-cut, Broadway-style production.

Aida opens Friday night at , and as usual, audiences in the Dale K. Hidde Theatre will be wide-eyed at the spectacle from curtain to curtain.

Also as usual, the shining stars for theatre-goers will be the upperclassmen taking center stage in leading roles, the stunning set and lighting, the soaring music, the pure pageantry of this production set in the opulence of the court of Pharoah in Ancient Egypt.

But large parts of the grandeur of the unfolding scenes were created in the ordered chaos of the East Players' costume shop, tucked away in the attic up long flights of steel-mesh stairs.

Looking like a circus was dismembered and crammed inside it, the costume shop is where a lot of the magic of the stage is created.

Although the East Players also maintain an immense collection of costumes in the basement, for Aida, as with many productions, all the 120 costumes the audience will see were made from scratch.

That's unusual at the high school level. Period pieces – and nobody stocks period pieces from Ancient Egypt – are complex, so most schools will rent or alter costumes for such a show. Not East.

A statue comes to life, well dressed

When the curtain rises on Aida, senior Ali Yentz will be revealed as a display in the Egyptian wing of a museum of history, her statuesque figure decked in a gorgeous red gown studded with pearls. She'll be topped with a tall, matching headpiece befitting her royalty in the part of Amneris, princess of Egypt, daughter of Pharoah.

She'll come to life, and that gown will move with her in eye-popping color.

Her sumptuous garb was the vision of junior Hailey Rakowiecki, head of the costume crew. But much of the work was done by freshmen who did not even know how to sew when they entered East last fall.

"At Longfellow, I was head of costumes for a few shows," said freshman Morgaine Prather. "But there, we just picked out costumes.

"East is really different. We make almost everything. I didn't know how to sew at all – so I learned really fast."

Taking the reins with confidence

Hailey, now in charge, was no different.

"It was kind of the same thing when I came in as a freshman," she said. "I didn't sew, but I learned. And when the upperclassmen who taught me moved on, I just kind of took over."

So Hailey, as only a sophomore, in only her first year as head of costumes and second in sewing and design, last spring took charge of the 300 costumes used in the extravagant Phantom of the Opera.

That she and Morgaine and the rest of the mostly freshman costume crew are able to do that is part of theatre art, an art of illusion.

"I make it up as I go along," Hailey said. "I don't use patterns and I don't use the stitches a seamstress would.

"As long as it's well done and fits, that's what counts."

The secret is that people who marvel at what is achieved, even when they're sitting in the front row, are seeing what Hailey wants them to see – which is, in fact, what the viewer wants to see.

With a willing suspension of disbelief, under the lights and in action, a pieced-together frock becomes a top-designer gown. Plastic beads and spangles become glittering jewels.

"On stage," Hailey said, "we're concerned with shape and color."

There's also contrast. In Aida, Ali as Princess Amneris is of course bedecked befitting a pharoah's daughter, but senior Wenie Lado, in the title role of Aida, comes dressed in a simple white tunic as the Nubian captive she is.

The art of aging, not always gracefully

Makeup also comes into play. Anthony Horn, also a senior, shaved his head Wednesday and, along with other more pallid cast members, underwent a spray-tanning for his role as Pharoah.

Jacob Livingston as Radames and Christian Siebert as Zoser, play son and father, respectively, so Christian must appear a generation older and more worldly than his senior classmate.

Makeup changes are more rare than costume changes in theatre, but they do happen, and of course they happen at East.

"Everyone has some level of makeup," said senior Sara Armstrong, head of makeup. "There are changes for the Pharoah. He's being poisoned, so he has to age very rapidly."

For Sara, that's only a challenge in timing. She cut her teeth as a freshman on Little Shop of Horrors and Fiddler on the Roof, which are still her two favorite experiences.

"In Fiddler, the majority of the characters were middle-age to older," she said. "It was a trial by fire."

Sara is not sure that she will stay with theatre, but the experience has given her growth toward her next goal – she's signed up for the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she wants to "produce sculpture, to create prosthetics."

Down to the wire, but no sweat

As of Wednesday, just 48 hours from opening curtain, Hailey, Morgaine, Annika Madler, Haley Hubert, Katie Piel, Sam Orozco and Madeline Berendt – all but Hailey are freshmen – were still producing or modifying costume pieces for the show.

But there was no panic. It seems that no one ever panics in an East production under director Tom Thaney. There is just the recognition that there is work yet to be done, but all will work out in the end.

Madeline was piecing together red and black belts for the 10 ministers, as Sam chalked and cut them.

"The minister robes are simple black, so they need a pop of color," Madeline said. "Each one is specific to each minister, so it's a tedious process. It's as tedious as it can get."

But the show must go on.

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SHOW DATES

7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and March 16 and 17

Sunday at 2 p.m.

WHERE

Wauwatosa East High School

Dale K. Hidde Theatre

7500 Milwaukee Ave.

PRICES

Adults $15 • Senior Citizens and Students $12

Seniors with Gold Pass and Students with Activity Pass $10

Children 12 and under $8

TICKETS

BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE

Ticket Hotline: (414) 773-2110