Theatrical Costume Shop

Disney now turned to adapt another of their classic movies into a musical, this time Mary Poppins The musical premiered once more overseas, in London, and this time made the successful transition over to Broadway. The challenge of translating the animation into real life action and costumes didn’t occur for Mary Poppins The show maintains the movies original look and even costumes in Mary’s case but also add new flair with brighter colors and adding same color pieces to the Banks children and Burt to convey their closeness to Mary.

Leon (sometimes written Léon) Bakst, as main set and costume designer for Les Ballets Russes in 1910, designed the sets and all costumes for the wildly extravagant production entitled Schéhérazade produced by Serge Diaghilev. The Chief Eunuch costume was translated from his design work into reality by costumier Marie Muelle and her crew. It is currently owned by the National Gallery of Australia, purchased in 1973 along with many other Ballets Russes costumes, and can be viewed by appointment. I saw it in March 2011 when they showcased an exhibition of costumes from Les Ballets Russes.

One of the key challenges will be assessing what is in the boxes. It would take years to catalog the individual items. Skokan and her staff will essentially classify the material into topics and sections that will intuitively make sense to researchers and the merely curious. It helps that the library staff labeled the boxes they removed noting the locations such as “marketing department.” It can take 10 hours to classify a box’s contents and place them in acid-free folders or acetate sheets and replacing rusting paper clips with stainless steel models. Using staff and students, it costs about $15 an hour per box.

Once you are given your costume, you put it on and wear it, no matter what You cannot reject a costume because you think it’s ugly or stupid or you just don’t like it. The director and costume designer have a specific vision for the show, and your costume is one aspect of it. You also must wear the costume the way the costume designer tells you to. You might think it looks dumb to tie a sash around your shoulder and want to tie it around your waist. (You also don’t get to change the item once previews are over, either.)

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