January 26, 2000
Costumers outfit playhouse cast
Designers pull together pants, hats, ties for 'Inherit the Wind'
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
In outfitting the cast of "Inherit the Wind," costume designers Nancy Albrecht and Donna Hood managed to dress 34 people in complete outfits, including all accessories, in just three weeks.
They pulled together pants, shirts, ties, shoes, suspenders and hats for the 22 men and dresses, hats, gloves, shoes and purses for the 12 women without too many hitches. All the while working from handwritten notes of measurements and a list of characters and their occupations at the back of the script.
Sounds impossible to the uninitiated, but these veterans say this was a relatively small and simple play- costume wise. Over the years, as they have worked on other plays, they have managed dozens of complex costumes and multiple costume changes per character.
"The ones that are a lot of fun are usually pretty challenging because they are fantasy costumes," said Hood, who has been a costume designer for 10 years and has worked extensively with Albrecht before . "We both really like doing period pieces."
Besides putting together all the costumes, the costume designers for a play are responsible for alterations, repairs, cleaning and organizing all the pieces so they are readily available for the actors. Before each show, they examine each piece and steam anything that is wrinkled and make any necessary repairs. Double sewing of hems, buttons and seams in advance can help minimize repairs.
Costume designers know that getting most of the costumes together by the first dress rehearsal is crucial because sometimes the best-laid plans fall apart after a dose of on stage scrutiny. Something that looked good in the dressing room a few minutes ago suddenly clashes with the scenery or a nearby actor. Or the pattern on a dress is too big or small under the lights or the drape of a suit coat is not consistent with the character. It could be anything.
The costume designers spend the dress rehearsals taking notes and directors will chime in with requests for last-minute modifications. During the first dress rehearsal, the designers may take pages of notes. With each subsequent dress rehearsal, fewer and fewer changes are noted.
"Getting the costumes all to work together is the real challenge," Hood said. "You can't have anyone stand out who shouldn't be and the ones who should stand out you must make sure they do."
A complete redo is a rare but dreaded occurrence, necessitating a lot of last-minute scrambling. But if the look on stage does not work or meet the director's vision, it can be back to the drawing board for the costume designers.
"Then there are the times when you have the whole show costumed and get it under the lights and it is totally unacceptable and has to be redone," said Albrecht, who worked as a costume designer with the Michigan Ensemble Theater for three years. "You can't really tell what it will look like on stage in advance."
For more complex plays and musicals, with numerous costume changes, the challenge of costume designers takes on a logistical angle. Sometimes the activity backstage is as choreographed as the events on stage, as actors are sometimes yanked out of one costume and stuffed into another during their short break off stage.
"The worst change in history was the fast change in "A Chorus Line," said Kathy Verstraete, a costume designer for 20 years and the current officer manager and assistant to the executive director of the Old Town Playhouse.
"In 80 seconds we took 18 actors out of casual dance wear and changed them into performing attire, complete with change of shoes and undergarments. We had nine or ten dressers and you were putting the left shoe on one person while zipping up someone else. We rehearsed this a lot."
Costume designers have a reputation for scrounging, it sort of goes with the territory. The first step in outfitting actors for a play is to sift through the costume room on the third floor of the Old Town Playhouse. They dig through racks of dresses and suits, boxes of everything from shoes to hats to dresses to ties to find what appropriate pieces for era of the play.
If there are still holes in their costuming, the designers will then scour thrift shops and second-hand stores looking for appropriate pieces. Thrift store shopping and a lot of sewing are the saving graces of costume designers.
"I'm notorious for buying an old dress because it will one day become an overskirt in a medieval costume," Verstraete said. "We're really lucky at the playhouse to have a nice costume shop."