Set to stage its first full musical, “The King and I,” the I’m a Bright Kid Foundation decided it wasn’t enough to mimic the look of the Thai silks worn by the production’s royal family. It had to be the real deal.

“I did a lot of research into traditional Thai dress to make things as realistic and authentic as possible,” said costume mistress Anna Foster. “Things have to be Thai, not Chinese or Japanese.”

The foundation budgeted $20,000 for costuming and was prepared to send Foster to Thailand to source her fabrics, but she was able to find the Thai silks, brocades and crowns she wanted online to create 120 costumes comprising multiple pieces for the king of Siam and his 10 wives, including Lady Thiang and Tuptim, and 17 children. An aunt in New York was also able to find yards of crisp dupioni silk.

“I really wanted to use silks for the kids and wives because they have to look opulent, and they have to look like they go together,” Foster said.

Originally from New York, Foster moved to Hawaii in 2001. She has designed and constructed sets, costumes and projections for several local theater groups and served as the technical theater teacher for Mililani High School’s Central Theater Arts Academy for five years. With a background in lighting and stage management, she said settling for other fabrics wouldn’t ring true on stage.

“I don’t like satin on stage because it’s too shiny; I wanted the sheen of silk because it’s important for the costumes to look opulent, not showy.”

Key components of Siamese royal dress of the 1860s, when the story takes place, include the “pha-noong,” a long, pleated, wrapped skirt; and a foot-wide draped shawl called a “sabai,” worn by men and women.

Although Foster studied photos of the royal family and tried to keep pieces as authentic as possible, “costumes still have to serve the show and last through a lot of abuse and movement,” she said. “There’s a lot of bowing in this show, going down and coming up, and everyone will be wearing kneepads under their beautiful dresses.”

For the I’m a Bright Kid Foundation, it was important to create a production that would have made its namesake, the late Ronald Bright, proud. Bright was Castle High School’s theater director and instructor for more than 40 years and pushed to establish the Castle Performing Arts Center. After retiring, he guest-directed a string of musicals with Paliku Theatre, which is presenting “The King and I” in collaboration with the nonprofit foundation started by Bright’s former students shortly after he died in 2015.

Many of them have gone on to careers on Broadway and in Las Vegas, Japan and beyond, including John “JB” Bryan, Jade Stice, Johnson Enos, Michael Bright, Jade Bright, Sonya Mendez, Shawna Masuda, Kimee Balmilero, Tori Anguay Dela Cruz, Buz Tennant and Marcelo Pacleb, founder of 24-VII Danceforce.

“After Mr. Bright passed away, a lot of us felt a need to continue his work,” said Ligaya Stice, president of I’m a Bright Kid Foundation. “A lot of people felt they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing without the opportunities he provided, and they felt greatly indebted to him. He was a life changer for so many kids.”

The foundation’s original plan, Stice said, was to present a small, simple show, “something a small organization could bite off and be successful at.” Plans to present “The Sound of Music” fell through because the musical is on tour and rights aren’t being released.

So that “simple show,” in the tradition of Bright’s grand spectacles, became the more elaborate “The King and I.”

The beloved Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein is based on the memoir of Anna Leonowens, who was governess to the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the early 1860s when he was pushing to modernize his country. (In reality, the king had 39 wives and concubines and 82 children.)

The King of Siam will be portrayed by Michael Ng, a drama instructor at Kaimuki High School. Anna will be played by one of Bright’s former students, Kathleen Stuart, a New York-based actress who is returning home to reprise the role she performed under Bright’s direction at the Castle Performing Arts Center in 1998.

Foster, who had originally signed on to dress the 19-member cast of “The Sound of Music,” had only six weeks to pull the costumes together. She says she’s grateful for the many volunteers who contributed to sewing costumes, including parents of the children in the production and costumers from Diamond Head Theatre, The Actors’ Group and Hawaii Opera Theatre.

And while the fabrics and costumes look great hanging in the workroom, Foster is cautiously optimistic they will work out as planned under the unforgiving stage lights.

“For a long time, you don’t know what you have until you run the whole production.”