Highlands Ranch Herald > Lifestyles
‘Pride and Prejudice’ onstage at high school
By Sonya Ellingboe
A production of Jane Austen’s beloved “Pride and Prejudice” is being stitched together— literally and figuratively— onstage and backstage at Highlands Ranch High School, with performances scheduled at 7 p.m. Nov. 12, 13, 14, 20 and 21 in the theater, 9375 S. Cresthill Lane, Highlands Ranch.
Director Barb Dignan has combined a couple scripts, adding lines from the immensely popular 2005 movie with Kiera Knightly, which many students know well.
Dignan and costume designer Teri Beach went shopping for a few period furniture pieces and a detailed set is being built by skilled student techs.
Snow days were a setback to rehearsal schedules, but Beach said she welcomed the chance to stay at home and sew. She, assistant seamstress Rachel Henderson (a junior who is also a cast member) and five of her Theatrical Costuming students at Emily Griffith Opportunity School, are working with more than 200 yards of fabric.
By curtain time, they will have stitched 30 new dresses, adapted 50 period costumes from previous shows and created seven new men’s period coats and officer’s uniforms for the Bennett family and fellow actors. While she no longer has kids at HRHS, she loves creating costumes and working with young actors. (Her son Sean graduated from this program and is now a professional tech in New York).
Henderson was constructing a “simple white day dress,”with Empire waist for one of the Bennett girls from a gauzy cotton. It has to be durable, yet quickly made and will be trimmed with blue ribbon. “I’m a theater geek, history geek, fashion geek,” she says — obviously in the right place, although looking at lots to accomplish in the next week. In “Pride and Prejudice” she plays Amelia, a friend of the Bennett girls.
She won a national fashion design contest for an outfit she designed and sewed and plans on college study that will combine theatrical costume design and business. She also works at McDonald’s and dances at Colorado Ballet’s south academy in Highlands Ranch. (Dignan said Henderson looked at the movie and taught other cast members the dance it depicts).
Elizabeth Bennett will be played by Nikki Mahoney and Kyle Dunn will portray Mr. Darcy. The cast numbers about 40 students who rehearse late, adding demanding theater to other studies, because they’re theater geeks like Rachel Henderson. It’s probably the beginning of a life-long love affair for many of them.
Director Barb Dignan has combined a couple scripts, adding lines from the immensely popular 2005 movie with Kiera Knightly, which many students know well.
Dignan and costume designer Teri Beach went shopping for a few period furniture pieces and a detailed set is being built by skilled student techs.
Snow days were a setback to rehearsal schedules, but Beach said she welcomed the chance to stay at home and sew. She, assistant seamstress Rachel Henderson (a junior who is also a cast member) and five of her Theatrical Costuming students at Emily Griffith Opportunity School, are working with more than 200 yards of fabric.
By curtain time, they will have stitched 30 new dresses, adapted 50 period costumes from previous shows and created seven new men’s period coats and officer’s uniforms for the Bennett family and fellow actors. While she no longer has kids at HRHS, she loves creating costumes and working with young actors. (Her son Sean graduated from this program and is now a professional tech in New York).
Henderson was constructing a “simple white day dress,”with Empire waist for one of the Bennett girls from a gauzy cotton. It has to be durable, yet quickly made and will be trimmed with blue ribbon. “I’m a theater geek, history geek, fashion geek,” she says — obviously in the right place, although looking at lots to accomplish in the next week. In “Pride and Prejudice” she plays Amelia, a friend of the Bennett girls.
She won a national fashion design contest for an outfit she designed and sewed and plans on college study that will combine theatrical costume design and business. She also works at McDonald’s and dances at Colorado Ballet’s south academy in Highlands Ranch. (Dignan said Henderson looked at the movie and taught other cast members the dance it depicts).
Elizabeth Bennett will be played by Nikki Mahoney and Kyle Dunn will portray Mr. Darcy. The cast numbers about 40 students who rehearse late, adding demanding theater to other studies, because they’re theater geeks like Rachel Henderson. It’s probably the beginning of a life-long love affair for many of them.
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