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Listen » Helen Regan and Cornelia Corson
“I was a chubette in high school.”
Helen Regan to her friend Cornelia Corson.
Recorded in New York, NY
Credits
Facilitated by Veronica Ordaz.
Transcript
Click here to read the transcript for this story.
Interview transcript
I was a chubbette in high school. I’m mean, I was like a size 14, 18. We were doing the Pirates of Penzance and I was one of the main honchos with the big-feathered hat and the boots and all this stuff and my costume was wrestling tights, skin tight pants with a big sleeved shirt. And when they showed me what I had to wear at dress rehearsal, I burst into tears and said, well I’m not doing it. I just wouldn’t go on stage like that. They said why, I said because you can’t tell which is the back and which is the front because my stomach stuck out so much. So I cried and started to go home and they said, you have to do it, you have to do it.
So I get on the stage, it’s all mothers and fathers of all the kids that I know and everything, and the curtain opens and the entire audience bursts into laughter. Well, I couldn’t run off the stage, so, I got over my stage fright and after that, I could really do just about anything on stage.