Claudia Bennett, California Area High School librarian, journalism teacher and director of this year's high school musical, "The Music Man," recalls the exact moment she met Barb Gismondi, seamstress for the school's musical productions for the past 25 years.

"I was registering my daughter for kindergarten," Bennett said, chuckling as she replayed the memory in her mind, "and Barb was wearing a blue Cookie Monster uniform."

Gismondi, too, laughed at their meeting, noting she was "doing a party for new kindergarten students and we were doing a Sesame Street scene. I made the costume to introduce the new students and they all recognized the Cookie Monster."

But there is another side to Gismondi, who resides in Elco, that impresses Bennett even more.

"When Barb watches a movie, she does not watch the movie," Bennett said. "Instead, she focuses on the costumes. That's how she looks at the world."

Gismondi agrees with Bennett's assessment of her as a movie critic. It helps her when creating costumes for the school musicals.

"With the musicals, I try to remain focused on the period," she said. "After doing this for years, I find myself studying the time period of the film and researching the period regarding clothing and hats."

So precise is Gismondi in recreating period clothing or fashion that it sometimes bothers her to see costumes, even in Broadway productions, that are embellished regarding styles or colors, straying from a time period to generate audience appeal.

A seamstress since her teen years, Gismondi's first venture into the world of high school musicals at California was when her daughter, Maria — then in the third grade — was cast in "South Pacific."

Gismondi explained to musical director Lori Martin that she was a seamstress and offered to help, and has been there since. Martin, after directing 24 musicals dating to 1984, passed away in May 2011, shortly after the conclusion of "Footloose."

"We got together and talked about costumes," Gismondi said. "All I did that first year was make some alterations and make sarongs for the girls."

That brief role led to Costume Parade Day, as students, responsible for assembling their costumes, paraded past Martin and Gismondi in the auditorium. "They told us what act or scene they needed clothes for and we said 'yes' or 'no' regarding their costume selection and made necessary changes. It's all my fault," Gismondi laughed. "I saw how things could be better and other parents helped," including Colleen Nowak, Denise Prest, and Linda Wohar, who each had children in California's musicals and who assist Gismondi with putting together the costumes.

Gismondi's role expanded to costuming the leading characters and groups, but in 2006, she began working with costumes for the entire cast. With her background and eye for costuming, she was saying 'no, that can't work' or 'yes, that can work.'

A 1970 California Area High School graduate, high school musicals were nonexistent when Gismondi was in school. Instead, she was turned on to sewing in Home Economics classes in the eighth and ninth grades.

Tools of the trade

Today, Gismondi uses seven sewing machines, but her favorite is a 1952 Singer, which happens to be the year she was born, she noted with a laugh.

"I bought the Singer as a backup, but I fell in love with it," Gismondi said. "It is so fast and good. I keep machines set for certain stitches, but I also bought a new Viking. It does a whole lot of things other machines cannot do."

With 25 musicals upon which to reflect, her favorite costume was for Dolly, from "Hello Dolly."

"It was just a pretty costume," she said. "I found the right material to fit the time period. That applied to 'Damn Yankees,' too. I found the right material for the old baseball uniforms and it was nice to see the boys on stage in those uniforms."

Of course, there is the "toughest costumes to make" category, with those from "The King and I" garnering that dubious award. "Every costume had to be made from scratch because of the time period," Gismondi said, with an instant recollection of what cast members needed. "Lori actually asked my permission to do that musical because of the nature and difficulty of the costumes. In 'The King and I,' women from the time period wore full skirts with hoops, so those costumes also represent one of my best memories."

While Gismondi has special memories for each of the musicals, with Martin's death, "The Music Man" this spring proved to be "an emotional year for adults and students," she said. "I worked with Lori for 25 years and we worked well together. Being with Lori and watching her work was a learning experience. I saw what she did to pull everything out of the students and enable them to their best."

But, Gismondi added, Martin was instrumental in developing more than just the students' acting talents.

"She was a special person, really tough with the production, but through the toughness you could see a genuine love for the kids. She knew how to draw out the best in the kids. She had a method to reach the students and get through to them what she wanted. She demanded and they gave. It was obviously different and emotional this year, and Claudia rallied the students at a difficult time and did an excellent job with every aspect of the production."

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