Ava Roots uses colors to tell stories

Brianne Johnson, Layout Editor
November 9, 2019

 

Photo submitted by Ava Roots 
For this year’s fall play Almost Maine, sophomore Ava Roots got to be costume designer. The play was a success and so were the costumes.

“Using colors to tell a story,” is what freshman Ava Roots does with the costumes for the fall theatre production Almost Maine. 

Roots is the student costumer for the fall production Almost Maine. A costumer is responsible for designing costumes for all of the actors. The costume designing job is usually done by an adult that is brought in for each play, but this year Roots stepped up to tackle the difficult task.

“She’s in charge of things that need to be altered, things that are damaged or need fixing, she measures the actors and she designed all of the pieces. She really runs the show,” Director Grif Sadow said.

Costume designing, a rare skill

Roots has been making costumes and designing clothes for a few years she loves making clothes and enjoys sewing, working with fabrics and textures. She had no intentions on becoming a costume designer as she was going to be a construction technician. Then she found a costume designing and realized it was the job for her.

“It is very rare to find a student costume designer. Costuming skills like sewing are just really rare in young people. So, it is a very rare instance to have a student especially coming in as a freshman, it was interesting,” Sadow said.

“I think costuming and sewing has just been something I’ve had to work towards over time. I was fortunate enough to start sewing at a young age and it’s a skill I’m still trying to improve,” Roots added.

Help from an inspiring cast

Roots gets her design inspiration from the actors and her director. They made vision boards for each character to help Roots design each costume. On the boards they put photos and words they would use to describe their character.

“Ava is using her knowledge of fashion and costume design to work with the directors vision for the show. She takes aspects of each character and uses different patterns and colors that symbolize that character and she turns it into a functional costume,” Elsa Persson senior and Theatre Co-President said.

Designing the northern lights

Ava makes the costumes out of old clothing, scraps, things she finds or can borrow and things she can purchase at thrift stores.

“I try to design the costumes by using color or lack of color to represent characters, since its contemporary I use colors to tell a story. So each scene has their own colors, that was my primary focus and it took a little bit of time to figure out each costume. But after I did that, it was pretty cool to see how it came together,” Roots said.

A stressful task

Roots has been working on the costumes for weeks. Staying after school until 7 p.m. and coming to every performance to make sure everything runs smoothly.

“It’s been really stressful in the last couple of weeks leading up to the show,” Roots said.

“She has handled the stress well and she is very detail oriented and very hardworking. She is one of those technicians that never settles. She is always trying to improve upon the work. I really appreciate that,” Sadow said.

Roots has taken on a huge responsibility she does the work of a professional. Ava is the first student costume designer to work without help from an adult designer.

“She is exceptional and she has great ideas. It’s incredible that she’s so young, because she is doing everything that an adult costumer would. She has school and homework and is still able to do it in a way that’s so humble and detail oriented. She is very impressive,” Persson said.

Ava plans to continue designing costumes for the next theatre production and the rest of her highschool career.

“I’m excited to do it again,” Roots said.