Utah Shakespeare Festival | sarahemccarroll

Costume Technology at the Utah Shakespeare Festival

I have worked in the Costume Shop at the Tony-Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival since 2003. During each summer and several fall seasons (with the exceptions of 2009 and 2010, when I was involved in coursework for my Ph.D.), I have been a member of a staff of at least fifty who are collectively responsible for producing the costumes for six main stage productions and three small-stage Greenshows. At USF, I have the opportunity to work with important regional, union designers, and with Equity actors. The costume studio at USF is one of the best in regional theatre, and to have developed a deep and lasting professional relationship with the company and the management staff of the shop has served as an important personal and professional validation of my technology work. In essence, this validation serves as peer review; the hiring process for the USF shop is highly competitive and to be accepted as part of the staff over such a long period of time is a clear statement about the professional-quality costume technology I produce.

When I began my work at USF, I was a stitcher, responsible for garment construction; in essence, I sewed for eight hours a day. As my skills in costume construction, organization, and draping have improved, I have worked my way up through the ranks of the shop’s technical staff. In a professional costume shop, there are three positions usually involved with the technical realization of each production’s costume design: the stitcher, the first hand, and the draper. Since 2005, I have served as first hand, junior draper, or draper in the shop.

The first hand is called so because their hands are the first to touch the actual garment fabric out of which costumes are made. First hands are responsible for cutting garments out of fabric, based on patterns provided by the draper. They also communicate construction techniques, steps of construction processes, and standards of construction to stitchers. In addition, first hands are often heavily involved in the organization of garments and accessories for a show; this stems from their role in garment fittings with actors, where they are expected to take alterations notes.

Drapers are the head of the technology team on a production; it is their job to translate the designer’s ideas into patterns for garments. The draper is ultimately responsible for the finished appearance of every garment in a production. They are accountable for the fit and finish of clothing, but they also serve as the head of a team; the draper plans the work of the first hand and stitchers, prioritizing projects and scheduling fittings. They also generate muslin mock-ups of garments, so that fit can be adjusted on an actor’s body before costly garment fabrics are cut; final patterns are created from these mockups and given to the first hand to cut. At USF, I have served as first hand on many productions and as a junior draper for some. When I work as a junior draper, I function as a fitter for shows that either do not require large builds or are so large that the workload needs to be shared.

Here, I share production photos from three of the shows on which I have worked since I became a member of the GSU faculty; these production shots help showcase the professional standard of construction work to which I adhere at USF, and which I try to help students attain in the educational environment of a university shop.

Draper; Twelve Angry Men (2013), designed by David Kay Mickelsen. The costumes for this production are limited to twentieth-century menswear. I served as draper on the show and along with a single stitcher, fit and altered the garments in two weeks, finishing the show so that we could become part of the staff of another production. The rest of our time during this build period was spent altering the menswear for Anything Goes.
Junior draper; Les Miserables (2012), designed by Kevin Alberts. Les Miserables is an enormous production and had two drapers with a single first hand. Again, I focused my energies on fitting the chorus costumes, which numbered over 150, and making sure all the costume pieces were well-organized, leaving the senior draper and first hand free to concentrate on the garments under construction.
First hand; The Music Man (2011), designed by Kim Cook. This production had a single draper, but two first hands. I was responsible for fitting and altering the majority of the chorus costumes, of which there were approximately 80, while the other first hand concentrated her efforts on helping to fit the 6 principle actors and cutting the built garments.

In addition to my technical work during the construction period, I have served as a wardrobe supervisor at USF since my second season there; since 2005 whenever I have stayed with the company for the full summer run, I have been the Wardrobe Supervisor for the Adams Theatre. This outdoor space is an Elizabethan-style wooden o theatre in the mold of Shakespeare’s Globe. Each summer the festival mounts three shows on the Adams stage, all costumed in period garments; in addition, one of the shows performs bi-weekly matinees in an indoor space. This requires that many costumes be transferred between spaces. The Festival operates a rotating repertory, which means that all shows are opened at roughly the same time and are performed during the same period of time. This is opposed to a revolving repertory, in which one show is opened and closed before the next begins its run.

As wardrobe supervisor, it is my responsibility to assign wardrobe personnel, or dressers, to actors; to analyze the pattern of costume changes during a show in order to be sure that each dresser can successfully carry out their track; to ensure that costume pieces are carefully checked in and out each performance and are kept in optimal condition via any necessary ironing, steaming, polishing, or repair work; and to ensure that costume changes during the run of the production happen smoothly and efficiently.

Because of my long tenure at the company and the number of years I’ve run a single theatre, I am also asked to train young dressers on my crew in the standards and practices of professional wardrobe work. This responsibility, one which I enjoy having and find tremendously filling, means serving as mentor to the crew, helping them to problem solve both technical issues with changes or garment repairs and interpersonal glitches with actors. I communicate dressing notes from the designer and technical staff during the dress rehearsal and preview period, an am responsible for quality control throughout the run.