Margaret Mildred "Kit" Kittredge was a little girl in Cincinnati during the Great Depression. A tomboy, she loved to read, liked baseball and was described as "resourceful," "clever" and "spunky."
She might not be as different from 8-year-old Halle Kate Sewell as you might think.
FAQ
American Girl
Fashion Shows
WHEN — 1 & 4 p.m. Saturday & Sunday
WHERE — Arts Center of the Ozarks, 214 S. Main St. in Springdale
COST — $35
INFO — 751-5441
Halle herself says neither she nor Kit likes chores. They're both "kind of stubborn."
But, also like Kit, Halle is "very helpful to me," says mom Erin.
Mom and daughter have been comparing and contrasting Halle and Kit as Halle prepares for the American Girl Fashion Shows, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at the Arts Center of the Ozarks in Springdale. It's the first year in ages that the event has flown without organizers like Nikki Sievert and Erin West, but Sirod Meineke has stepped in to give it wings.
It's not like Meineke is brand new to the job. She's been assisting with plays and events at the ACO since her son appeared in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" several years ago. The hardest part of taking over the American Girl Fashion Shows was making the events her own. And the best way she saw to do that was to make them as inclusive as possible. Instead of casting the same girls for all four fashion shows, she's cast different groups for Saturday and Sunday. The ACO event may be the only one of its kind in Arkansas -- American Girl allows only one charitable event per state -- but Halle Kate Sewell will be one of nearly 100 girls participating.
"We have attended the fashion show for the past two years as audience members because Halle has a couple of American Girl dolls, and she loves tea parties," Erin Sewell says. "I keep up with what's going on at ACO, because we've gone to several plays there over the years, so I knew about the fashion show.
"She just had a ball. And when I saw the Facebook post about auditions this year, I asked if she would like to be in the show. And of course, she was over the moon!"
Sewell says there were "hundreds of girls" at auditions, and it took about a week to find out Halle had been "cast" in the production. "She asked me about it every day," Sewell says.
When she received the role of Kit, Halle and her mom did their homework.
Sewell uses the word "spunky" to describe Halle, but adds that she is "equal parts sweet."
"She has a very big heart. She picks bouquets for me every day, and just on random days, draws homemade cards to take to her teacher at school. She never meets a stranger, she's always ready for a party," her mom says, and Halle's favorite thing about American Girl dolls is dressing them up in outfits like hers.
Unlike Kit, her mom says, Halle likes matching "ensembles" -- a word she learned from the "Fancy Nancy" books -- and coordinating hairbows. It's a mystery to her mom, who admits she was a tomboy more comfortable burying her brother's G.I. Joe dolls in the sandbox. Then she adds that she did grow up to be an interior designer. "So I'm very much in to making things look pretty."
So is Meineke, and this year, she's built the theme of the show around the doll of the year, Grace, an American Girl who has visited Paris and fallen in love with baking. The fashion shows -- and the teas afterward -- will be very Parisian in feel, Meineke says.
Halle says she's very excited and -- although Isabel is her favorite American Girl doll, not Kit or Grace -- "I really do like American Girl dolls."
-- Becca Martin-Brown
bmartin@nwadg.com
NAN What's Up on 10/02/2015