The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in
Southport Magazine, written by Lisa Stites. The entire article, which covers about every aspect of creating a community theatre musical, can be found
at this link.
A cast of 38, plus costume changes, equals 167 costumes
Many of the ensemble actors in Shrek play more than one role. Ryleigh
Ingram is Young Fiona and also the Ugly Duckling. Max Iapalucci is
Tweedle Dum and Grumpy. And his mother, Jen Iapalucci will be in two
trios — the Three Little Pigs and Three Blind Mice. She’s also in charge
of costumes. With 38 actors in the cast and several of them having
multiple roles, this is no small task. In fact, she’ll need 167 costumes
for the whole show.
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| 167 Costumes |
Iapalucci has been hard at work for a couple months. She ordered fur
for Donkey’s costume but wasn’t satisfied with how it looked so it
became part of the rats’ costumes instead. Some items, such as Go-Go
boots for the Blind Mice, were used in previous BLT performances. The
Wicked Witch’s dress and Little Red Riding Hood’s outfit from Into the
Woods and Dorothy’s sepia gingham dress will all make an appearance in
Shrek. Family, friends have donated some pieces, such as shirts
and pants. Others, such as all the
Duloc Citizens, are being made from scratch.
Two Saturdays in June, volunteers met at BLT to work on sewing
projects such as the Duloc Citizens costumes, which are appropriately
uniform as Lord Farquaad likes conformity. Volunteers not so
comfortable with a sewing machine also helped by assembling rat hats and
other costume pieces. Iapalucci solicited donations of old baseball
hats and showed the volunteers how to cut out pieces of fur to wrap the
hats. Folding it just so after flipping it around the back of the hat
“magically” created ears, Iapalucci demonstrated on the first costume
workday.
“You just ‘shooz’ it, like this,” she said as she expertly tucked the
fur into place. Pink pom-pom noses, pieces of fishing line for whiskers
(eyes would be added later) and some pink spray paint for the inside of
the ears and by the end of the afternoon, there were more than 30 rat
hats ready for tappers.
Iapalucci does have a couple seamstresses helping out, but she has taken on a lot herself as well.
“The bulk of the work is being done on my kitchen table, while my
very patient family steps over piles of fabric and gamely serve as
mannequins on occasion,” she said.
Shrek is a hit Broadway show but was also a popular animated movie,
which means the audience will expect the lead characters to look a
certain way and would likely be disappointed if they don’t. Fiona just
has to be in a green dress and Lord Farquaad has to have shoulder-length
black hair.
“It would be like doing the Wizard of Oz, and having Dorothy in something other than blue gingham,” she said.
But, Iapalucci said, there is more room for creativity in costuming
some of the supporting roles, especially the animal-based characters.
“For example, we have the Three Little Pigs in this show, and I’m not
sitting here making three plush pig suits, but I am making costumes
that will be recognizable as pigs,” she said. “For me, the costumes
where I can let my imagination loose are the most fun.”
When she’s designing costumes, Iapalucci said she takes a lot of
things into consideration. In Shrek, there are 24 actors who have to
change from Villagers to Fairy Tale Creatures, many of which involve
multiple layers, wigs or hairpieces, specialty shoes, tights, etc.
They’ll all have to make that change while Shrek is on stage, singing a
song that’s been timed at slightly less than two minutes. Costume
changes like these have to be factored into all the designs. Maybe an
actor can layer tights or other costume pieces. Maybe the actor is
experienced and can handle a quick change without a lot of help.
Iapalucci said she uses a lot of elastic waists, and Velcro instead of
buttons or stitching. She also tries to avoid zippers that can jam,
buttons or anything that involves a lot of buckles.
Once the costumes are finished though, the costume mistress’ job is not complete.
“Costumes require constant attention,” she said. “They tear, they
lose buttons, they, let’s be honest, start to smell after the actors
sweat in them for a couple of nights.”
A team of dressers will be backstage for all the shows, ready to make
repairs and working to keep the dressing rooms organized. Besides being
onstage for her own roles, Iapalucci will also keep tabs on how the
costumes are holding up throughout the two weekends of performances.
“I will have a repair station for anything that has to be fixed on
the fly, and I do anticipate leaving the theater every night during the
run with an armful of items to be repaired and cleaned. It’s just the
nature of the beast,” she said.
