Student Blog: Wardrobe! Lots of Wardrobe! Life is Wardrobe! Love is Wardrobe!

This March the University of Colorado Boulder staged a production of Stephen Sondheim's Company in the Charlotte York Irey Theatre in the University Theatre building. The Irey is primarily a dance space, but for this production it was set up as an alley stage with risers on either side of the playing area. I thought this was a really cool set up and it led to some really neat staging.

I had initially auditioned to be in the show, but upon not being cast I found other ways to be involved in the production. I've been working in the University Theatre costume shop for almost two years now so I've been in the shop all semester working on costumes for all of the productions the department is putting on, including Company. For this production I was asked to be Wardrobe Head which I gladly accepted. I was in charge of a little crew of three other kickass wardrobe technicians: Nicole Gadbery, Layla Middleton, and Sam Sutter. We all worked really well together as a team and I'm so glad that I got to work with all of them.

I was so excited to be working on wardrobe crew for this show because I had been on wardrobe before and I loved that I could still be involved in the show even if I wasn't on stage. I was also super excited to be on wardrobe crew because I got to work again with our amazing student costume designer, Carly Peterson, who I'd gotten to work with previously when I was Wardrobe Head for The Importance of Being Earnest this past fall which she co-designed. Carly created the most beautiful paperwork laying out in detail for us every costume change in the show and even color coding it by the dresser who was in charge of it. I seriously don't know what we would have done without it.

Possibly the most important responsibility of the wardrobe crew is being able to complete quick changes successfully and on time. Our fastest quick change in the show comes right after the opening number. We had 37 seconds to get the actors playing Harry (Roan Cochrane) and Sarah (Ari McCarty) from their party looks to their vignette looks. It took our entire crew of four people to do this change, two of us on each actor, and we did it perfectly almost every time. The only other really big change that we had all hands on deck for was the change before the wedding scene near the end of Act 1. I was on Paul's (Antonio Esposito) change and Sam was on Amy's (Dani Soibelman) change while Nicole and Layla helped hand out all the purple ties and bowties that needed to be added to the other actors' party looks. Other than that we had a bunch of other changes scattered throughout the show divided between the four of us.

In addition to the all important quick changes, wardrobe crew did have other responsibilities to take care of before, during, and after the show. For every performance we would arrive before the actors to check that all costume pieces were there and accounted for, and then we would put all of the costume change presets onto another rack to be brought to the dressing room of the Irey. Once the actors arrived we would help wherever we were needed, be it to zip a dress or help with hair. Additionally, around half hour, I would go around the dressing room taking actors' water bottles to go fill them up before the show. During the show our main concern was costume changes as well as taking notes of anything costume related that may need to be fixed, such as a fallen off button or a hole in a garment. Any of those things would be fixed in the costume shop the next day. Finally, after the show it was our job to bring all costumes back to the dressing rooms and make sure once the actors had all changed that all of the costume pieces were back where they belonged.

I think my favorite part of every performance was at the very end of the show I would sneak into the wings and dance to the curtain call music with our incredible Assistant Stage Manager, Camden Hornor. By closing night we even had some of our own choreography made up. Due to the alley configuration of the stage the actors all stood in a circle to bow and so every night at the end of bows after the actors acknowledged the booth and the musicians they would also gesture over to Camden and I and we would blow kisses right back to them. I smile even now just thinking about it. I am so grateful to have been on wardrobe crew for this production, and I can't wait to be part of more incredible productions here at the University of Colorado Boulder.