Helen Regan (HR) and Cornelia Corson (CC)

HR: 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.