I’m busy making costumes ready for the stage but this time its not from the RPC studio but up in Newcastle alongside the fabulous costume team on the upcoming Bedknobs and Broomsticks UK Tour. Its been an intense couple of weeks but it sounds and looks brilliant.
Whilst we’ve all become very used to seeing and wearing masks out and about it has been less strange a transition that I thought it might be to be wearing one all day to sew. We’re so well looked after with regular testing and separate break out areas for each group of people that make you feel really safe to be back at work. As I’m working in Costume, which is the pre-production team, rather than Wardrobe, the team who maintain the show during the run, the strangest thing is being in a theatre and hardly seeing any actors at all!
The costumes for this show are a mixture of hired pieces and bespoke makes, which during the technical period of two weeks the costume team are on hand in dressing room 9 to put the final touches to everything. We have our Breakdown specialist painting, dying and spraying costumes, shoe and accessories, a team of Costume Makers taking up trouser hems and [spoiler alert!] sewing on poppers and magnets to facilitate quick changes and the Costume Supervisors overseeing it all and relaying notes from the technical rehearsals, performers and designer. Its a busy room full of trimmings, talent and teamwork.
The utterly marvellous costumes are design by Gabriella Slade, who also designed SIX. Clearly I’m slightly biased having spent hours working on the costumes but I highly recommend checking it out when it visits a theatre near you! The RPC team are hoping to take a trip to Eastbourne to watch it, perhaps we’ll see you there!