Recent Los Alamitos High graduate, Kasey Chu, will be heading to UCLA this fall, to begin her pursuit of a degree in microbiology. But aside from her interest in science, Kasey found another passion as a theater technician. More specifically, the young student found a talent for costume design and construction.
It was a passion that recently earned her two national championship awards at the International Thespian Festival.
She had top scores from two Los Al High productions this past school year – Costume Design for the Great Gatsby and Costume Construction for The Addams Family.
Kasey initially found her interest in clothing design during the COVID lockdown. She discovered online videos, where people offered instruction in making their own clothes. Some of the videos showed intricate design ideas that caught her attention.
“I thought that would be a really cool thing to do,” Kasey said.
She found a program at Los Alamitos High, that offered classes in that vein, the theater technician class that prepares students for theater work behind the scenes. Set building, lighting design and costume design, among them.
She got involved in her freshman year and studied and worked in the program all four years. She said she enjoyed researching and designing costumes, but the construction – seeing the costumes come to fruition – was always her favorite part of the process. She also said that being part of the many teams it takes to bring a production to the stage was a bonding experience.
“I made a lot of good friends in the department … and the environment was really fun, but also educational and it helped me grow a lot as a person,” Kasey said.
At UCLA, Kasey will be majoring in Microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics. Her eventual goal will be to work in research. Studying infectious diseases is something that peaks her interest.
Kasey said that her decision to pursue a science degree came late in her high school career. She said the hands-on work that took place in her AP Biology class was particularly intriguing.
“That’s when I started to think, ‘this is really neat,’ and wanted to keep doing this,” she said.
She expects her first year to be busy, and a big adjustment. But said that once she gets her footing as a college student, she might try getting involved in theater again. And why not? She’s shown a knack for it.