13 minute read
The Making of The Lion King, Jr
from 2020 March
THE MAKING OF THE LION KING, JR. COSTUMES A Conversation with Diana Tunis
By Linda Gross; Photos by Diana Tunis and Linda Gross
The production of The Lion King Jr. by the Summer Youth Musical Theatre Program just wrapped up as we went to press. It was one of the more ambitious plays SYMTP has tackled over its nearly two decades of productions, and there have been some amazing shows! The Lion King Jr. showcased 56 kids on stage. Tunis is the creative genius behind SYMTP’s magnificent costumes, a role she’s been playing for XX years. According to Tunis, work for the costuming for The Lion King Jr. began in the summer of 2019, according to Tunis, and this SYMTP production enjoyed its largest budget to date thanks to the generosity of FMI and United Fund of Globe-Miami, as well as private donations by individuals and businesses. I talked to Diana Tunis by phone on some of the work that went into the costumes this year. If you wondered how she achieved the stunning results, here are a few insights into her method.
Diana Tunis (L), back stage with Debbie Jennex and a young actor, on opening night. Tunis is the creative genius behind the set design and costumes of the The Lion King Jr.
F “I sculpted the heads, and the mentors would help with layering the papier mache,” Tunis says. There were nine mentors – kids who have aged out of youth theater and helped with every stage of production, from coaching the actors, creating sets and running the lighting and sound.
F The lionesses’ costumes, which created such a regal effect as they flowed, were made from vintage saris, and the leggings were crushed velvet.
F The beaded corsets worn by several in the play were all hand beaded. Tunis says she started beading these in July and beaded throughout July and August. Once that was done, she moved on to the masks.
F The hardest costume, she says, were the giraffes. The kids had to learn to balance that much weight on their head, so it was especially important to have good posture, because a little tilt could mean disaster.
F All of the face painting designs began with Tunis, who created the look for each character and then taught the mentors how to replicate them. During the shows, it was the mentors who would apply the paint.
F The Wildebeests comprised one big beast and one small beast mask. “We did ten big ones and eleven small ones,” Tunis said.
F The skirts of the grassland were made of raffia table frames.
F The hyenas, no two alike, were some of the most challenging because of the gums and teeth. Each set was individually designed
F In earlier plays, the masks were offered for sale to the parents of the kids who wore them, and sometimes auctioned off, with all monies going back into the program. With the Lion King set, Tunis says HDMS is providing two rooms for storage, so the plan is to store all of it, including the costumes and set design, and come back in five years.
F There is precedence for repeat performances. This summer, STYMPT will be doing The Wizard of Oz, which was first performed in 2000, again in 2010, and now, 2020.
F The beautiful lion manes of Scar and the Lion King were made of actual weaves - those wonderful hair extensions that women use to add volume and color streaks. Tunis wove them into the manes to give them texture and depth.
Easter Parade, Continued from page 1
~ 2007 ~
Along with Molly Cornwell, a fellow theater nerd and Kip’s cohort in all of his schemes, they concocted a vintage look from donated items from Tucson’s little theater. They had the dress tailored to fit Molly, embellished a hat she found at Steinmart, and added a parasol. Despite an early morning rain that year, more than 50 people turned out to join them in strolling the historic district. And the tradition of the Easter Parade had begun.
~ 2010 ~
Although an Easter Bunny has been part of the parade from the beginning, in 2010 the Bunny added a bit of style of his own. Molly tells me that they always rented the bunny costume from Easleys in the Valley, and “if you wanted a smiling bunny and not one of the others, you had to rent it a year in advance!” Since its inception, the Easter Parade has had a half dozen people who have channeled the bunny each year - and gone through several suits. Today, they own their bunny suit.
~ 2012 ~
~ 2011 ~
This would be the last year for the Gila County Cowbelles before disbanding, but they donated all of their dresses to the theater for use in plays and future Easter Parades. Carol Haugh, a Globe resident and downtown supporter, walked with her grandkids. She always made a big deal of these kinds of downtown events and involved her family members, who would come to visit her on the holidays. That year, she hosted a family “paper plate hat contest,” which the kids proudly sported. Isabella Bigando and her faithful dog, Fador, along with Elena Brantley, took a prize that year and set the bar for dapper dogs and their owners in the parade.
It was not just Kip who had a mischievous streak and looked for the opportunity to laugh. He inspired it. According to Molly, one of Kip’s favorite stops was the Huddle, where owner Tracy was always up for the fun. That year, she rolled out the bikes - and the guys - to welcome the Harvey Girls in style.
The Copper Spike was in its fourth year and had added a new diesel engine to pull an ever-growing number of cars. It was a beautiful engine, and it came with a peachy-orange striped paint job. According to Molly, it was that paint job which inspired Kip and Molly’s outfit that year. Kip contracted with Ginny Sonne to make a dress from a vintage pattern for Molly, and they tasked Nancy Mackay to find “yards of orange fabric in the Valley.” The fabric arrived on the day of the event, and so Molly says, “We just wrapped it, tied it and threw it over my shoulder.”
The couple paid $40 that year to rent the hat, but it would be the last time. From then on, the hats were always designed and made by Kip and Molly - sometimes, not always, at the last minute, but always to great effect! And the flowers. “Kip always insisted I have fresh flowers to carry, and he would arrange a fresh bouquet for me and one for his mother - every year,” Molly says. After the first Easter Parade (and the photos that followed), word got out about the parade and people began showing up from Tempe, Apache Junction, and points beyond, just to participate in this event. Many took Kip up on his idea of attending the Easter Parade and riding the 11 o’clock train.
It was Arizona’s Centennial Year, and Kip and Molly had been invited to Phoenix to attend the State Ball. Kip again commissioned Sonne to make a dress for Molly from an old pattern, this time using yards of green satin reminiscent of 1912 fashion.
“It was the Centennial year, and Kip and I, along with Tom Foster (of the Bullion Plaza Museum) had all been invited to the Centennial Ball hosted at the Capitol. It was a black tie affair, and everyone in the state who was anyone had been invited. We thought ‘appropriate’ dress would be a vintage recreation of the period,” explained Molly.
But when they arrived, they discovered everyone in ballgowns and beaded jean jackets.
“We stood out like a sore thumb, or the kind of theater-nerds we were,” Molly laughs.
And yet, the pair was so striking that soon everyone was talking to them...or about them.. including the media. “It worked out well in the end,” says Molly, “because we got to talk about Globe a lot that evening.”
Three months later, she and Kip donned the same vintage attire for that year’s annual Easter Stroll, only this time an Easter hat of epic proportions was added.
Easter Parade, Continued on page 7
Easter Parade, Continued from page 6
“Of course, we forgot to account for width and height,” she says of the hat’s overall design. “We didn’t measure or weigh it before wearing it that day. Which, in hindsight…was an oversight,” she says.
Turns out, it was too wide to fit through a normal door, requiring Molly to contort slightly when entering or exiting any standard doorway, and it was so overburdened with sheer fabric and floral abundance, that it required holding up one side of it throughout the stroll down Broad Street, to keep it from squashing her face.
But the effect was stunning, and Easter Parade 2012 would go down in the record books on social media. Score one for a fashion forward promotion of our town.
2012 was also the year the scavenger hunt was introduced. Kip always wanted people to mill around and spend some time in downtown after the parade,” says Molly, “so we came up with an idea to include a scavenger hunt which would take people around town to discover a shop, a historic marker - something about our town - using historic clues that both locals and visitors could figure out. Using Facebook and smartphones, people were asked to take a photo of themselves in front of the business featured in the clue and then tag the business and tag us,” Molly said.
~ 2013 ~
The Easter Bunny is joined by Carrot Top, and antics ensue. Kip loved to drive these two to Fry’s and the Huddle after the parade, for the sheer delight of seeing people’s faces as a giant bunny and carrot passed them on the road or in the aisle.
One couple who had driven in that day to look at housing say they made their decision to live here after seeing the giant carrot in the back of a convertible pulling into Fry’s.
Once inside Fry’s, they were known to fight over the carrot cake and delight little kids.
The Community Players, Willie Thomas, and Jonelle Brantley have always played a key role in the parade, from judging to, well, channeling a carrot, among many characters.
~ 2015 ~
A bittersweet year for many, since this Parade would be Kip’s last. He would pass away in July of that year. It was also the only time that Kip and Molly didn’t walk together. “I was stuck that morning in the arts center setting up tables for the cake and didn’t get back to the depot in time to walk with him,” she says tearfully.
The hat she wore that year had been one Kip had bought for her. “It was so expensive. Almost $300 if I remember right...and he had picked it out himself.” And then, she laughs, someone asked if she had made it herself out of a laundry basket! “He was so proud of it, so I wore it, but more than one person thought it looked like an upside-down laundry basket. I still have the hat on my desk.”
A new character made the parade that year. Kip added a Spring Chicken who walked around with a spring. “No one got it – but Kip thought it was hilarious,” Molly remembers.
And most striking was Diana Tunis’s creation of a 10-foot earth goddess, initially created for a local play, and brought to life again for the Easter Parade.
~ 2017 ~
Among the guests that year was Oliver Jones, Jr., a German Shepherd with his own Facebook page, who made an appearance and brought Globe to all of his followers. (Go ahead... look him up!)
Come Visit Our New Location!
~ 2019 ~
After a particularly wet winter, the wildflowers on Round Mountain were spectacular, so we did a promo shoot with the Easter Bunny and Molly in a field of purple…being mindful of where we stepped lest we disturb a critter in the dense ground cover.
Johnu wore the purple two-toned suit that Kip and Molly had picked out nearly 6 months earlier to lead the parade with the Brantley girls.
~ 2020 ~
And now for this year’s Easter Parade, here’s what you need to know: New this year! The Globe Downtown Association is happy to announce the 2020 Easter Parade & Picnic Basket Picnic! In addition to our annual cake and punch, feel free to bring along your picnic baskets for a fun picnic basket picnic to be enjoyed anywhere in downtown. Join us on Saturday, April 11th at 9 a.m. for a meet & greet photo op with the Easter Bunny and his friends at the Train Depot and a 10 a.m. Easter stroll down Broad Street in historic downtown Globe. The Easter Parade/ Stroll rain-or-shine event is sponsored by the Globe Downtown Association Historic Globe Main Street Program and is free to the public.
For information, please message on Facebook or call 480.345.7477, 928.425.4000, or 928.425.8111. To see a slide show of our Easter Parade photos through the years, visit our website at www.globemiamitimes.com. u
Simply Sarah
Est 1996
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