The Private Lives of Costumes

Hi, it's me again, Courtney, the Costume Design intern.

As of yesterday, this is where my job kicks into high gear for my department. Yesterday, I met Katherine Roth, the costume designer for Noël Coward's Private Lives, who I will be assisting during the the show's preproduction. With the majority of the Cal Shakes family, I attended the PL Meet-and-Greet, wherein we met the cast and creative team for Private Lives. I also attended the read-through, which was a great way to put faces and voices to the script I read last week.

After that, my job was to call around the Bay Area looking for vintage clothing shops that carry 1930s men's suits and tuxedos. This is a challenging task in itself. If you know a few things about vintage clothing, you'll know that authentic 1930s clothing is becoming increasingly challenging to find in this day in age, due to how old the clothing is and the deterioration of the fabric itself. However, I was fortunate to find a few shops that look very promising in terms of carrying what we are looking for. A few of the shops are new ones I have never heard of, and one is a shop I have actually looked around in for a show I designed in the past.

As far as the women's clothing for the show, it looks like we are building our own clothing from existing items brought in by Katherine. We also might be building a few items from scratch, as well. It's always amazing to see how costumes evolve from a paper or muslin pattern to a three-dimensional costume that looks fabulous.

I met actress Diana LaMar—Private Lives' leading lady—for measurements, and we helped pick some rehearsal shoes for her to practice in.

On the agenda today? Looking at the stock (costumes) of one of our fellow Bay Area theater companies. Hopefully, we will find some great items that will work for our show.