During technical rehearsals, the costume department moves their operations from their spacious costume shop on Alexander street to the relatively cramped wardrobe rooms in the Berlind and Matthews theaters. Since the actors need to wear the costumes during rehearsal, the staff saves a lot of time by coming to the theater, rather than driving the costumes back and forth between the theater and the shop every time they want to change anything.

In the wardrobe room, the ladies of our costume department can make last minute alterations (and repairs), put on finishing touches, and make whatever adjustments the costume designer and director feel are needed once they see the clothes onstage. The costume staff uses every available second that the costumes aren’t being worn, including before rehearsal, during dinner breaks, and when a specific character isn’t needed onstage. When I went over to visit, I found Sarah, the assistant to costume designer Kaye Voyce, working on Orgon’s costume, which you can see in Kaye’s original sketches.

See also:

• First day of Tartuffe Tech
• Spotlight on: Costumes
• Costume Blogging - Orgon

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Behind the Scenes, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.