Fall Conference Session Spotlight: Ribbon Flowers

Session: Ribbon Flowers

Presenter: Angela Howell

Students will use a pattern to hand sew a simple ribbon flower. Ribbon flowers

were wildly popular as adornments on garments and accessories during the 17th 18th and 19th centuries. Learning to sew ribbon flowers not only creates gorgeous accents for your costumes but teaches and refines hand sewing skills.

Join us on November 8th at Slippery Rock University for this session and many more.

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Angela Howell is the Technical Director at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. She has a BA in Theater from Gannon University, and an MFA in Theatrical Design from University of North Carolina Greensboro. Much of Angela’s career has been centered in costume design, although she has dabbled in nearly all aspects of live entertainment. She worked in Creative Costuming at Walt Disney World, as the costume designer at the Erie Playhouse, a theater and art teacher for a YMCA after school program and spent two years performing for children on Disney Cruise Line. She has been fortunate to have had very few “normal” jobs in her life so far.  

She loves all things related to costumes, tends to use animals in shows, and will only work on lighting when no one else will. Angela has designed costumes for nearly 100 plays and musicals. Her favorites include: Disney’s The Little Mermaid (EP), Disney’s Mary Poppins (EP), Disney’s Aladdin Jr. (EPYT), Legally Blonde The Musical (EP), Les Misérables (EP), Shrek The Musical (EP), The Color Purple (EP), The Perry 200 (EP), Pinkalicious (EPYT), Hrotsvitha and the Plague Players (GU, used horses), Emilie La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight (GU, used a dog), Titus Andronicus (SSN), The Tempest (SSN, used a duck). When she isn’t creating theatre, she is watching it at one of the many local theaters.

Angela is a founding member of the team behind the original parody musical Dusk: A Bite-Size Love Story, which enjoyed a sold-out 24-show run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. In 2024, she guided her Gannon Theatre students in presenting the original work How We Take Our Coffee, also at the Edinburgh Fringe. She is already planning to return to Fringe with her students in 2028.