Columnist Susan Snyder: Getting a backstage education

Tuesday, June 20, 2000 | 8:37 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@ lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Holly Barnes never figured on all the sewing.

After all, this is 2000. Eighth-grade girls aren't required to take sewing anymore. They take a mandatory computer class.

But the 14-year-old member of Molasky Middle School's Merrythought Players learned last week she will have to learn to sew if she wants to work backstage with costumes when she grows up.

"It's a lot of sewing -- a lot more than I thought," she said after spending an evening with the wardrobe crew of the Radio City Rockettes.

Barnes and her Molasky Merrythought classmates Jacob Kirkegard and Lauren Falvey are aspiring actors who spent last Thursday evening "shadowing" the backstage crew at the Flamingo Las Vegas' main showroom.

All three would prefer to work as actors when they grow up. But they learned through this experience and from shadowing the crew of the Flamingo's "Forever Plaid" that actors need a fall-back job.

"This is a great career, but it's a very hard row to hoe. It's good to have a real job," Helen Sax, Molasky's drama teacher, said as her entourage bustled into the service elevator that would get them backstage.

Bruce Ewing, who plays two roles in "Forever Plaid," set up the shadow sessions after speaking to Sax's advanced drama class about the realities of the business.

Kit Bond, the Rockettes' senior production manager, told the trio of teens that it's easy to fall under acting's intoxicating spell. But it's easier to eat working as a member of the stage crew.

"I can count on working a year and being unemployed two months," Bond said. "An actor can count on being employed one to two months out of the year, and the rest of the time being unemployed."

All three agreed working is better, so they chose someone to follow. Falvey worked sound detail. Kirkegard helped run the lights. Barnes followed her interest in wardrobe and costumes. And she got an education.

"We polish their shoes. We wash their underwear. We make sure they don't go out with any rips," said Royce Renfro, wardrobe manager. "I've tied a pair of shoes on a dancer's feet. I've been known to use duct tape. If it doesn't show and it gets them out there, we do it."

Still, wardrobe workers have to know how to make the permanent repairs, design patterns, construct costumes and work with some pretty picky threads.

Moving between the wardrobe room and the Rockettes' dressing room, Barnes learned she'll have to be good in math, learn to use a high-powered sewing machine, figure out what types of fabric work together.

Don't look at them while they dress. Make sure every hat, glove and pair of shoes is in the proper place. There's no time for rummaging around.

Rockettes breeze in, change, and head out before you can count to 10. The name of the game is speed. That safety pin better be handy.

Barnes says bring it on. She'll sew, pin, polish and fix shoe straps.

"I just want to be in show business," she said, proudly wearing the black tailor's apron the wardrobe crew gave her. "I don't care how."