Calgary Quest School teams up with Inside Out Theatre costume designers

Joshua Dickinson, 14 years old, shows off the ‘alien fish’ costume he came up with and turned into reality thanks to professional costume designer Krista Willott.

All the students at Calgary Quest School drew their favorite Halloween costume on a piece of paper, then three were chosen to be made by costume designers with Inside Out Theatre.

For the second year in a row, the two groups are teaming up while the students of the Quest School come up with some pretty interesting ideas.

"At first we thought it was a robot," said costume designer Krista Willott, about ne drawing. "But then it kind of morphed into an alien fish, which is way more fun!"

The alien fish idea was submitted by 14-year-old Joshua Dickinson, who worked together with Willott  to come up with something that could be made into a wearable costume.

Willott says the challenge was to figure out colours and a creepy design that looked like a fish from another planet.

"He was very clear with what he wanted," she said. "Then I just kind of drew different things, we looked at different pictures online, like of an angler fish and a clown fish."

Dickinson didn't want to wear any makeup and was insistent that the primary colours had to be black and yellow.

On Halloween morning, Dickinson and the other students got to see their costumes. Willott says it's been a rewarding experience.

"Oh my gosh, there is no word to describe it," she said. "It was just so great seeing his face and he gave me this big smile."

Black cat

Fifteen-year-old Emme Lottermoser wanted to look like her cat and sketched a black cat for her costume. It went from head to toe and her face was painted to look like a cat.

"I like it so much," she said. "I have pink lips, white whiskers and some dots."

Calgary Quest School is a special needs school that teaches students from the age of six all the way up to 20. It doesn't have grades but kids are placed where they fit the best socially and academically, so teachers can best meet their needs and skills through a modified version of the Alberta curriculum.

Anna Fitzgerald is Dickinson's teacher and says Halloween is a big event at the school.

"We all dress up in costumes, we're trick or treating in the school which is a really awesome activity," she said. "Because sometimes these guys don't get that opportunity to trick or treat outside of the school, it might just sensory-wise, be too overwhelming so it's a beautiful community that we have in here."

Fitzgerald is impressed at how the costume designers interacted with the students to learn as much as they could about their ideas.

"The designers were great to spend the time," she said. "Because sometimes it's like (the kids) don't know how to say something so they'll just say yes or no and so to spend the time to really get what they want is awesome."

Victoria Pon, 17,  had her zombie bride costume made by Vanessa Taylor. The two worked meticulously on the fine details of the costume, right down to a purse that looks like a brain that Pon came up with and Taylor made from scratch.

"It's so good, I like it," said Pon. "The outfit is nice, it's so awesome."

"I loved meeting Vicky and talking to her and coming up with ideas and her vision," said Taylor. "And it's all her, she is the one who put this together."

Pon is wearing the costume all day at school and plans to keep it on for an evening of  "trick or treating."