What am I? I am a "Dresser". To put my job in a nutshell: I dress actors for theater. Of course its so very much more complicated then that, but that is the extremely shortened and condensed version. Its like the beef jerky version. It seems small, but there's so much more substance then you would first guess!
Today I was on a "pick trip" to two different theaters to look for costumes for the upcoming production I am working on of
Pride and Prejudice. I can't express enough how much I LOVE this job! I never knew that I would ever have a job that wasn't spent anxiously checking my watch to see when I could finally have my "15 minutes of freedom" also known as "coffee break". As a Dresser, I don't often even take my coffee breaks, or sometimes my lunch breaks! Because how can I stop when I am so invested in my current task? Also, who has time for food during a costume crisis?! The show must go on! And I am one to give it a good push in the right direction!
After I got home from my trip, I had a conversation with my mother after she was trying to talk to me and I was caught staring out the window absent mindedly with a goofy grin on my face. It went something like this:
Me: Mom, I think I'm in love.
Mom: Yes, *she knowingly nods* I already know.
Me: Mom, I LOVE this job!
Mom: *smiling, she silently nods*
Ha ha ha! Nothing like a good mother-daughter-talk!
Now on to the story of our pick trip!
On our first stop we visited the University of Alberta. We found out way up some stairs and rode the long narrow elevator (shaped for the rolling clothes racks that are moved in it) up to the wardrobe department. Once we entered into the stock room, it was truly a different realm. I suddenly felt very small surrounded by the looming towers of costumes, like Jack having just crawled up the beanstalk into the mysterious world of the giants. We walked over to a cluttered desk, where we met a small grey-fluffy-haired woman with a blue sparkle on her lip, who sat there working away. The playful sparkle in her eye, rivaled the blue glitter on her lip, as she showed us around to the different time period sections that we were interested in: ladies regency gowns, men's tail coats, bonnets here and boots back in there.
We quickly got to work pulling out possible options and the sizing them up to make sure the measurements matched the actor who was to wear the piece. The costumes hung packed in long rows, one atop the other. We wheeled over a rolling set of stairs, which I climbed up and stretched up on my tip toes to coax down four wool cut-away-coats (and I am 5'11" so that was quite a height!).
After this process, we made our way down an isle of costumes by the back wall and through a little door to the shoe room, lined with towering shelves stocked neatly with rows upon rows of shoes of every imaginable variety; as if books in a library. We spent some time picking out a few pairs of handsome boots, when in bounced an animated aging lady, with short purple hair that stuck straight up like the seeds on a dandelion. She suddenly flew at the boots we had picked out and snatched them up, announcing that she had claim on those boots already! (but had merely failed to locate them the previous day). So we gracefully decided to leave the boots behind and secure the rest of our bounty.
Our second stop on the trip was the Citadel Theater. First of all, we walked up some dimly lit cement stair case with our arms full of costumes, ready for return. As we finally ambled through the doorway and broke into the blinding light, I looked up to notice that I had entered into a remarkable space filled with climbing vines, trees and various other vegetation which was fed by the natural light filtering though the sky lights in the ceiling.
We found our way to a small unmarked door and made our way through a series of doors and into the elevator that brought us up to the costume shop, after the designer chatted a bit with the head of wardrobe we descended to the costume stock room. The space was packed with carts jammed in one next to the other so tightly, you would roll the rack out to get a proper look at the contents. There were masses of coral petticoats hung overhead like giant clouds aglow from a light fixture above, various faux plant matter from an unknown costume set mysteriously poking out from beneath a drop cloth and a long vivid red feather cloak crowned with a silver collar standing stately beneath the regency dresses swinging their shimmering skirts above my head as I navigated beneath the racks.
After much searching through coats, vests, dresses and the like, then measuring them all up and trying on a few bonnets, we then piled it all on a empty rack. We pushed the whole lot back to the elevator, past a rack of leather armor sitting in the hall outside and rode back up to the costume shop.
After photographing and signing out all the pieces, we rolled the rack down to our car and eagerly awaited our long overdue lunch (now suppertime). As we exited the theater, I wore my measuring tape draped around my neck like a gold metal, distinguishing my identity from the actors, dancers and other theater people who rushed past us with contented grins. As I rushed out the front door, I noticed the seemingly ordinary young woman perched in the lobby checking her phone, was wearing a polished black pair of dance shoes.
At long last, after going back to the University to pick up our rentals, we were able stop for supper and drove back to our costume shop, to unpack our bounty.
Over all it was a very rewarding and educational experience and of course, having thought it was the most fun to be had on a chilly Friday, I loved every minute of it!
