DEERFIELD TWP. — Cardinal Richelieu, M'Lady De Winter and the Musketeers will be dressed in style, thanks to a Kings High School senior.

        Mandi Peters , 17, has created 50 lavish period costumes for Kings' Feb. 14-16 production of The Three Musketeers. Since August, she has turned the school into a virtual garment district, with six school staff members helping to research and sew costumes.

        This is the first time the school has created all the costumes for a play, according to Kings fine arts department chairwoman and art teacher Chris Sanders. She has supported the effort by helping sew costumes and advancing the nearly $1,200 for material that the school will later reimburse.

        Lea Morgenroth, 18, who has been in past Kings plays, said this year's costumes are an improvement.

        “The costumes add very much to the play,” said Lea, who plays the queen's lady-in-waiting. “It enhances the show for the audience. They can see what costumes were actually like then. You can get more into character when you have a nice quality costume.”

        “It blew everybody out of the water,” Ms. Sanders said. “It will give her a total advantage if this is what she goes into.”

        “I've learned a whole lot,” said Mandi, who works two hours a day on the costumes made from cotton, denim and satin embellished with gold lace and hand stencils.“It's been really fun.”

        Mandi will use the experience for her senior art portfolio, an independent study project. She plans to attend Bowling Green State University to major in French studies. She has worked with The Children's Theatre and the New Edgecliff Theatre.

        Mandi has been involved with period reenactment groups and volunteered to act for a History Channel frontier series filmed in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee in 2000. She played Davy Crockett's wife and a villager for the series, which aired in part last July.

        The school hasn't decided whether the costumes will be later sold, given to the students or kept for future productions.

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