Bearden stage tech faces new challenge of hand-making majority of costumes
Abigail Cade (left) and Alyssa Ella (right) have been hard at work with the rest of the costume crew all semester long to get ready for November’s showings of Curtains.
Bearden’s costume crew has been hard at work this semester making costumes from scratch for the musical Curtains.
Curtains is a 1950s murder mystery and comedy that follows Lieutenant Frank Cioffi, played by Luke Bouchard, as he attempts to solve the murder case of musical theatre star Jessica Cranshaw, played by Laine Stevens.
Costumes being a critical part of each Bearden musical, crew heads Alyssa Ella and Abigail Cade have found designing these decade costumes exciting but particularly challenging.
“For our tech prep, we are having to bring in a lot of 1950s techniques and styles into our designs,” Cade said.
Added Ella: “I am most excited to see how the costumes will enhance the time period aspect of the show.”
In addition to making the costumes decade-specific, many crew members have had to hand make their costumes this year as opposed to using previously owned materials. Some of the costumes this year also have to match for multiple characters to wear the same thing.
“Matching costumes for a variety of body types either have to be handmade or we spend a lot of money buying them,” Director Mrs. Lauren Andrejko said. “We’re trying to save money on this end of the show in costumes by our costumes crew heads and their team taking on building a lot of the costumes from scratch, which has been a big challenge.”
Each costume crew member is given multiple actors to make costumes for, and this process can be extremely extensive.
“The team has really been great at looking at our resources and looking at what we have available to use, what kinds of fabrics and donations we’ve received in the past, and what we can build from,” Mrs. Andrejko said. “I’m proud of them and their tenacity.”
Cade, Ella, and all costume crew members are extremely excited to see their work combined with the set and props crews to create a complete story.
Curtains will premiere with an in-school show on Nov. 9, and opening night is Nov. 10. Tickets will go on sale at beardentheatre.com on Oct. 27 – $15 for reserved and $12 for general admission.
“Hopefully, it will enhance the storytelling and not distract from it,” Mrs. Andrejko said. “We’re three weeks out, and it’s just a big challenge to get costumes for 32 people clean, focused, and finished.”