PORTAGE | Jill Wadsworth finally has a use for dozens of prom dresses she has stashed away.

The dresses, in rainbow- and pastel-colored hues, are perfect for the dance contest scene in "Grease," Portage High School's spring musical to be staged at 7:30 p.m. April 17, 18 and 19 and at 2 p.m. April 20 in the East auditorium, 6450 E. U.S. 6. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Wadsworth, who graduated in 1994 from Portage High School, has been costume designer for the school's fall plays and spring musicals since 2000. As a high school student, she handled the lighting for Portage's stage productions. It wasn't until she got to college that a lightbulb went off, and she discovered how much she enjoyed costuming the productions.

"I liked the fact that you could do all the different periods," said Wadsworth, a Valparaiso resident. ""There was always something different."

Costuming also allows her to enhance the characters of the production more than lighting can, she said. Wadsworth is a graduate of Columbia College in Chicago. She has worked in professional theater but lately has curtailed her theater work, so she can spend more time with her son, 3-year-old Miles.

Miles tags along as Wadsworth sorts through the prom dresses, letter jackets and beehive curler hairdos destined for this year's Portage musical. This isn't the first time Portage has staged "Grease." Wadsworth was a high school student during a previous staging of the musical and said she didn't really pay attention to the costumes.

Even if she had, Wadsworth said the Portage faculty members who oversee the theatrical productions let her put her own spin on the costumes.

"They give me a lot of leeway to do things the way I want to, which is really nice," she said. "We're very fortunate at this school to have a huge costuming room I can choose from."

That huge costume closet means that Wadsworth doesn't have to reinvent the wheel for every show. Many of the costumes just need to be altered or, in the case of the beehive roller hairdos, just freshened up with a little glue and a coat of paint.

"The nice thing about doing costumes for a stage is that the audience doesn't see it up close, and you can get away with a lot," she said.

Wadsworth got to indulge her creative side last spring when Portage staged "Godspell." Her costume designs incorporated such disparate pairings as a gingham shirt with lederhosen. That show allowed her to use the colorful pieces from the wardrobe closet that rarely get seen on stage, she said.

Her favorite show to costume, though, was "Chicago." Portage High School hadn't staged the hit musical previously, so there were no costumes in the collection to fall back on, she said.

When the curtains go up on "Grease," Wadsworth will be backstage, taking care of last-minute costume repairs.

"There are always some last-minute things," she said. "You think everything fits, and you get them up on stage and then you see you need to shorten his pants."

If you go:

Portage High School will stage "Grease" at 7:30 p.m. April 17, 18 and 19 and at 2 p.m. April 20 in the East auditorium, 6450 E. U.S. 6. Tickets are $10 at the door.

FYI: Call (219) 764-6126.