Influenced by her 鈥渁mazing鈥� second-grade teacher, Pettit became an early childhood education and intervention specialist major. Having also enjoyed sewing costumes for her high school theatre productions, she decided to declare a minor in technical theatre as well.
鈥淚 knew I loved sewing,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut I did not know that costuming and sewing could be a career.鈥�
Pettit learned to sew at a young age, taught by three generations of her family - her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
鈥淐ostuming runs in my family,鈥� she said. 鈥淕rowing up, we always had homemade Halloween costumes.鈥�
Both her mother and grandmother sewed costumes for local school and theatre productions, and, over time, Pettit started doing the same.
鈥淏y my senior year of high school, I had made many formal dresses and key costumes for my high school鈥檚 shows, including Belle鈥檚 yellow ball gown from Beauty and the Beast,鈥� she said.
At Wittenberg, she took a job in the costume shop, and from there, her talent and love for sewing grew even more.
It wasn鈥檛 until her Wittenberg professors noticed her passion and talent for costuming that Pettit considered turning her hobby into a career path. With the recommendation and full support of her professors, she switched her major from education to theatre halfway through her junior year.
Under the guidance of costume designer and costume shop manager Deborah Henderson, technical assistant for theatre and dance, Pettit honed her skills, enhanced her r茅sum茅 and built a portfolio.
鈥淔rom her trust and her ability to assign the right project and foster confidence, I have gone from a small, quiet freshman making Lady Bracknel鈥檚 jacket [for The Importance of Being Earnest] to being a leader in the shop, making full Renaissance and Victorian outfits that shine in my portfolio,鈥� Pettit said. 鈥淒ebbie Henderson has a way to make shop workers feel like they have ownership of full characters鈥�.Her wisdom on how to costume a play and how to work with people is something I am so glad that I got to observe and learn from.鈥�
During her four years at Wittenberg, Pettit worked on costumes from a range of time periods and styles -- from Renaissance, Victorian and 17th century to the early 1900s, 1950s and modern day, including designing and fully constructing costumes for the characters of Rosa Bud from The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Beatrice and Senora Leonato from Much Ado about Nothing.
That range of experience gave Pettit an edge when applying to graduate schools. Accepted into three competitive programs, she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in costume technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which has offered her a full-tuition waiver and an assistantship. Before starting graduate school, she spent the summer as a stitcher apprentice at the Black Hills Playhouse in South Dakota.
At Wittenberg, Pettit found a university and a learning community that fully embraces the importance of the arts as evidenced by her presentation at the fourth annual Liberal Arts in Action: A Celebration of Learning in April.
鈥淚 got to show what I am capable of,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 really enjoyed letting people know what goes into a pretty costume鈥�..I feel most people think theatre majors often struggle; I liked proving that a theatre major can have a positive future in that field, and I am very confident that Wittenberg has prepared me for success.鈥�
