The Costume Shop designs and makes all costumes for any resident productions. This shop is run by professionals and staffed by both graduate and undergraduate students. This shop is fully equipped for any kind of costuming desired. They can make full costume pieces as well as accessories, jewelry, wigs, and they can even dye fabrics, shoes, and wigs.
A line of sewing tables can be seen right along the west wall of the shop. Layout tables can be seen in the middle of the shop. There are also facilities in the back of the shop for laundering, dying, and pressing material. There is a room used solely for making wigs but this is located on the fourth floor of the Center. Mannequins of various sizes and shapes can also be seen positioned around the room. These aide in the design of the costumes.
When a show comes up, the costume designer will get the script. They will look through it and get an idea of what the costumes need to look like. They will then meet with the director and if the designs are approved, the costume designer has to make rendered drawings of the costumes. Some of these drawing can be seen on the bulletin boards in the shop.
Once the show gets closer, and the actual cast has been chosen, the patterns for the costumes will first be made out of a fabric called muslin. Then the actual costume will be made from the real materials. When the show comes closer after all the fittings have been completed and the sets and lights are up on the stage, the actors, designers, and directors will hold a "dress parade". The actors will get into costume and the director will have them run through different scenes and lighting cues. This gives a chance for the directors and designers to make sure everything has turned out how they originally visualized it. If there is something that the directors do not like, they can ask to have it changed. Any necessary alterations will be made and then the show will be put on.
After the show is over, the costumes do not simply get thrown out. They are saved, catalogued, and put into storage. There are currently around 75,000 hanging costume pieces in storage in various closets, backstage, and under stage areas throughout the Center. This does not include the many jewelry and accessory pieces that can also be found in storage. One persons job in the shop is to simply keep track of the costumes in storage. These costumes have a couple purposes. They are rented to school theater groups, community theater, professional theater companies, movie production studios, or any other organizations along this line that would like to rent them. The Costume Department makes costume for almost all resident productions at Krannert but if there is a show with a very large cast instead of making all of the costumes they may only make costumes for the characters with major roles. Costumes for characters with more minor roles may simply be pulled out of storage.
This shop runs self sufficiently
with no outside financial help. It operates on the revenue received from costume
rentals along with revenue received from a sale held jointly with the Properties
Department. This sale is held once every other year and is used to both make
money and clear out some storage space for new items.