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Fat ladies and singing…[part 2 of 2]

But it wasn’t all peasants, and the dreaded cardboard boxes of rags:  I also got to choose, and later make, principal costumes.  Much more fun! [Making forty fairly-period-accurate caps to cover those granny perms, on the night before  a show is no fun at all]

Sometimes I made the whole outfit, sometimes we hired bits and bobs from the RSC or BBC costume hire departments.  These often had famous names stitched inside, which always gave me a fangirl thrill.

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From ‘Eugene Onegin’: we hired the dress, but it wasn’t grand enough so I made this jacket and jabot. She whined about the tightness of the sleeves, but who cares? They looked great!
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Personal favourites- my ‘from scratch’ designs for our splebdidly endowed leading lady in ‘Carmen’. The company hired a designer to do costume sketches every year [huh] but that year the designs were more suited to a lissome ballet troupe, not majestic opera singers. I contrived, inspired by my googled images of prima donnas from original productions.
The original carmen- fab!

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Blouse and cummerbund by me [recognise the blouse pattern?] and skirt from the RSC. I later used that skirt again in a school production of Oliver Twist. Go figure…
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Not all making from scratch- many backstage repairs also. This was a rather impressive backstage fix [though I say it myself] on the day of the dress rehearsal of Carmen. The beautiful suit of lights hired for the parade of the matadors split, and had to have a hasty gusset insertion made from fabric salvaged from the inside seams of his cape. Go me!
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Another splendidly proportioned operatic Diva. This lady was a professional singer brought in for a lead role [Abigaille] in ‘Nabucco’. Warrior princess? Check. As wide as she was tall? Check. Looking amazing? Check. I thang yew.

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Overdyed curtains + ragmarket tat ? OK. ‘Force of Destiny’ again.

I even snagged a few commissions from the cast:

A commission form one of the dancers, which she needed for a black-and-white themed Victorian wedding.
A commission from one of the dancers, which she needed for a black-and-white themed Victorian wedding.

I enjoyed that trip down memory lane- hope you did too.  Any of you done any costume work for stroppy amateurs?

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9 thoughts on “Fat ladies and singing…[part 2 of 2]”

  2. I did costumes for my local Am Dram for a couple of seasons – they were such prima donnas I couldn’t be a…d to do it for long.

    I did make all the costumes for my theatre and dance school for over 10 years – from Oliver to Annie, via South Pacific, Cabaret, Firebird and Nutcracker. Much last minute sewing, so one year I co-erced a keen mum to help. She had to make 20 little mu-mu dresses and 1 shorts and shirt for small people ( age 3-4 years) Come day of dress rehearsal she strolled in and said she hadn’t had time to do anything – she’d taken the fabric up to somewhere bloody miles away to her mum for her to do them and she’d have them show day. Turns out on show day mum hadn’t had time either …… So I have 21 potentially naked kids. OK breathe – ran to nearby fabric land and bought 2 bolts of flowery tat, came back and tore fabric up into lengths and tied it round kids like a sarong, plonked on flower garlands and pushed them on stage. All well that ends well – except one furious mum – I had sent her little boy out in a dress and she wasn’t happy – I am imagining the photos -oooopsss!

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