*All photos by Shelby Deibler ’20

The 2019 Moorestown Friends School Musical is Little Shop of Horrors. WordsWorth went behind-the-scenes with Ailsa Stevenson ’11 the night before the premiere to see how it all comes together for this year’s fall musical.

“It’s all in the details,” said costumer Ailsa Stevenson ’11 when asked what makes the role of costumes important in MFS’ production of Little Shop of Horrors. 

Alumna and costumer Ailsa Stevenson ’11 has been one of three main costumers for this production. In addition to the hours she has spent during the school day, she has also spent nights and weekends alongside Alison Gibson and Kiyo Moriuchi ’71 working on the many costumes needed for “Little Shop.” Stevenson commented on how much time is spent outside of rehearsal on costumes: “There are three full-time costumers –– adults…. Kiyo and Alison work on the costumes everyday from noon until rehearsal time, and I stop-in between my classes and after school. We spend a lot of weekends, too. This is definitely a smaller cast for a play, which helps.” 

There are also student costumers who help with costuming behind-the-scenes, but they help “mostly during rehearsal times, working on fittings and quick-changes. We all work on designing costumes so that they can be put on and off quickly.”  

Costuming for this year’s musical, Little Shop of Horrors, posed some unique challenges for Stevenson. Because puppets are an essential aspect of certain costumes, they not only had to be wearable, but also serve as a functioning prop. 

“There are four puppets. They are wearable and people have to kind of get inside of them. They are considered an important piece of the costume, and [act] as a sort of a prop. Actually, we have two actors where their role is technically puppeteer,” noted Stevenson. 

The puppet, which is a plant named Audrey II, starts off small, but eventually grows into a very large plant, a costume requiring multiple people to act as puppeteers. 

“[Audrey II] eventually gets bigger and bigger. The second puppet is actually attached to a jacket because the actor carries it around, and that is what I am working on now. I’m finishing up the structure and understanding how to make a costume that is also a puppet. My main costume that I’ve been working is the plant-puppet that Calvin [Bell ’20] carries.” 

Another challenge that this musical presents to costumers is the amount of quick-changes throughout the play. 

“What also makes costuming this play difficult is that there’s a few times where events happen where someone might get bloody, in which case we need two identical costumes. You can’t just wash a costume in between scenes! Because of the different events in the play, we have had to make lots of duplicates,” Stevenson continued. 

“We’re hours away from showtime, but I know it will all go great,” Stevenson said.