By Elizabeth Cloutman
 Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier |
Trish Files plays vital role in upcoming LAYT fashion show
Among the hundreds of costumes stored in the Los Altos Youth Theatre’s collection are vintage clothes that span the 20th century.
Cast members of previous LAYT productions will model some of these costumes, dating from 1900 to 1950, at the Tea and Lace Vintage Fashion Show 2 p.m., Saturday, in the Hillview Room of Hillview Community Center.
The fashion show will benefit LAYT’s summer musical production, Sandy Wilson’s “The Boyfriend.”
Trish Files, LAYT’s costumer for the past nine years, chose the fashions for the show.
Some of the clothing, such as Files’ favorite, a 1920s pale pink “flapper” dress decorated with fringes of silver crystal beads, is in such delicate condition, it cannot withstand the rigors of a play, but is too beautiful to remain unseen.
“That’s why we decided to do a fashion show,” Files said. “If this goes well, we may do another (fashion show) with little black dresses and wedding dresses.”
LAYT does four productions a year. Many of the costumes it uses came from the Los Altos Conservatory Theater Company, which folded in December 1994 due to lack of funds.
The City of Los Altos purchased the LACT collection and gave it to LAYT, which is part of the Recreation Department’s program, Files said.
Other costumes are borrowed from area theater companies, purchased at thrift stores or sewn by Files when needed.
Files said she really enjoys her work as a costumer, even though she was not a theater major; she earned degrees in math and library science. “I’ve reverted to my early interests,” she said. “I was always a costumer in high school.
“On a broader scale, one of the things I really like is creating a picture on the stage since I know what costumes will be there,” Files said.
She said she first became involved with LAYT when her son, Ben, now a junior at the University of California at Berkeley, acted in eight of its productions as a middle-school student.
“Ben always challenged me at Halloween,” she said. “One year, he wanted to be a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.”
In addition to “The Boyfriend,” LAYT will do “Twelfth Night,” their first Shakespeare production, in June.
The models for Saturday’s fashion show are: Rachel Bryant, Emily Strichart, Talia Steinberg, Heather Robinson, Sinead Byrd, Danielle Larson, Meridith Bough, Michelle Hjelm, Tara Chandra, Amanda and Georgia Glaze, Jill and Amee Wurzberg, Lauren Mosher, Barbara Gunderson and Beth Alexander.
Tickets cost $10 and are available at the City of Los Altos Recreation Department, 97 Hillview Ave., during regular business hours.
For more information, call LAYT at 941-0950.
