So it’s less than a week (6 days!) until Wizard opens, and we’re all moving into that freaked-out stage where no one can possibly imagine this show opening well. To quote Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate, “one week, will it ever be right?” But I don’t think I’ll focus on the negative. Life’s too short to do that. I’m going to talk about the one consistently good technical aspect of this show, and one that I particularly love quite a bit: the costumes.
Ok, ok, I am a bit biased; my mom is the costumer’s assistant/the shopper, but the costumes in this show are brilliant. For every mountain play, the costume crew builds the whole show from scratch. Sure, they buy things at thrift stores, but everything else is made specifically for that show. Pat Pollen is our costume designer, and she can do nearly anything. Her designs for this show are incredibly creative. For example, since the munchkin’s favorite color is blue, all of their costumes are variations of patterned or solid blue fabric, and in lots of different shades. They have little suits, hats, shoes, dresses, and it’s absolutely adorable – I wish I had pictures! All of the adult chorus has great costumes as well. During the Oz scene in act 2, all of the elegant women have these beautiful hats that Michael in the costume shop has made. The Witch’s hat is a little over 2 feet tall, so Jessica Powell (the Wicked Witch/Ms. Gultch) goes from 5′ 11″ to over 7 feet when she puts it on. This is especially effective when we have our scenes together, because I’m only 4′ 11″!
What I love about being a costume person’s daughter is because my mom needs to be at work, I go over and stay at the shop and get to see the costumes as they’re being made. Sometimes I even help out, but it’s usually little tasks like labeling socks or sorting shoes. It has it’s perks though – I get to try on all the hats! Some of the costumes that need repairing from our first dress rehearsal are all stacked in our living room right now, so I’ve been having a lot of fun walking into that room and seeing Jitterbug headbands and Glinda’s headdress on my couch.
On another note, I am getting very excited/nervous for opening. I’m not nervous about my performance, but I’m nervous about all the technical aspects/the dog. Gus, even though I’ve learned to love him a lot, doesn’t always make this entrance in act 1 before he and I run away from home, so I’m always ad-libbing lines while silently freaking out that he’ll run away and that the show will just stop. He’s never made it without us having to work the scene at least 4 times. I guess I’ll just have to be ready to think on my feet…which is exactly what I did during a run before the scarecrow scene when Gus pooped on the yellow brick road. I’ll remember the line “Toto, don’t poop on the road” just in case. Hey, it’s live theatre, ANYTHING can happen.
Hope to see all of you who live around Marin at the show, we open on Sunday!
~Sarah~
I agree completely about the costumes. Year to year they are consistantly EXCELLENT! Pat Polen and your mother do an excellent job, every time.
Their work on HAIR was just extraordinary . I can’t wait to see what’s in store for OZ on the Mountain.