Author Topic: COSTUMES: How involved do you get with costumes and wardrobe?  (Read 12233 times)

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RuthNY

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Re: COSTUMES: How involved do you get with costumes and wardrobe?
« Reply #15 on: Jan 24, 2016, 05:09 pm »
I provide Wardrobe with a Character/Scene Breakdown, Entrance/Exit plot, and all associated timings of entrances and exits, as well as a list of onstage costume presets (if any.) If there are very quick changes, those are always noted in the daily reports during the rehearsal process. The Wardrobe Supervisor then makes their own assignments, as to which dresser does what work during the show. Quick changes are noted in the master running plot of the show, but I've always found that the Wardrobe Department generates their own "Wardrobe Run Sheets."


How does Wardrobe runsheets fall into that statement? Very curious as I tend to prepare those for the wardrobe crew and consult wardrobe head with QC and presets and other tasks.
"Be fair with others, but then keep after them until they're fair with you."
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iamchristuffin

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Re: COSTUMES: How involved do you get with costumes and wardrobe?
« Reply #16 on: Jan 25, 2016, 12:29 pm »
I will always produce a run sheet, usually prior to tech. I'll go through it with Designer, Costume Supervisor and Head of Wardrobe as well, change anything they request, and then hand it off. It gives them a very strong head start, and I've never had any bad reactions (that I know of) to doing this for them.


smejs

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Re: COSTUMES: How involved do you get with costumes and wardrobe?
« Reply #17 on: Jan 27, 2016, 11:08 am »
I am used to providing a character/scene breakdown (including page and location of entrance/exits) or a who/what/where, and often both as the first gives you the overall picture and the second gives exact timing, location, and room to list what they're carrying and changing to/from.

However, at the current theatre, the costume shop manager has a very detailed document she likes that she has stage management create most of, including if there's time WE are putting all of the costume pieces into it. Most detailed work my team has ever had to do. My last show no one did a final tally but we had 17 actors in somewhere between 100 and 130 costumes.

It all depends on the theatre and the people.

Erin

forner

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Re: COSTUMES: How involved do you get with costumes and wardrobe?
« Reply #18 on: Feb 07, 2016, 06:23 pm »
Yes there is all that paperwork that stage managers create in rehearsals and happily pass on to wardrobe and hair/makeup departments in written documents. But remember when everyone moves into the backstage space in an open-ended, a limited run or on tour, stage managers are called upon to use the skills as a mediators. Even with advance planning questions always arise during load-in about locations for wardrobe presets and quick change areas -- not to mention finding adequate spaces for touring Wardrobe/Hair departments to set up their work tables, mirrors, chairs, washer/dryers, wig ovens, etc. This is when stage managers step forward and directly work with heads of the backstage departments to reach satisfactory solutions or adjustments for the backstage crews and the show as a whole.

EustaceSM

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Managing wardrobe from a SM's perspective
« Reply #19 on: Jul 03, 2016, 07:27 am »
I have a few questions regarding wardrobe running and what information, paperwork and resources Stage Management should provide the Wardrobe Department (designer, costume supervisor, dressers). Usually the theaters I work at, don't have a wardrobe head/costume supervisor so I take upon myself to accommodate the needs of running costumes.

How are costume changes (mostly quick-changes) rehearsed, managed and organized? Should time be scheduled for the dressers to work through changes with the actors before 1st dress rehearsal begins or even earlier? Are costume changes pre-planned in advance as much as possible on dressing sheets? Does the Wardrobe Master/Costume Supervisor makes these kind of decisions or does the individual dresser? Does the supervisor prepare the actual wardrobe runsheet or is it the SM's responsibility.

Merged similar topics- Maribeth
« Last Edit: Jul 03, 2016, 12:50 pm by Maribeth »

smejs

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Re: COSTUMES: How involved do you get with costumes and wardrobe?
« Reply #20 on: Jul 04, 2016, 09:53 pm »
In answer to EustaceSM, in my experience the wardrobe master or costume supervisor usually makes the decision on where we stand going into tech. Often, we'll have a quickchange rehearsal just for the crucial parts...for instance, for My Fair Lady, we did the mass quickchange into Ascot, and then continued through the first underscoring, as we did a fashion parade with changes. We also had a few 10 and 15 second changes from Cockney to Butler or reverse that we practiced before the whole show. Everything else, we felt we could address during the dress rehearsal itself. I mark the quickchanges into my own script so that when we're in tech and I want to call a hold I know if it matters for something going on backstage, too, and will say "we'll be running this through to Eliza's next entrance for the quickchange" if at all possible for such a circumstance.

For stage management, I time every single entrance and exit during runthroughs, so I can give that information to the wardrobe people for their own prep, as well as work on a document in a grid format that shows who is which character (or costume) for each scene. It also lists the location they enter/exit and what page. As for the quickchange itself, I usually trust my wardrobe folks to figure out the best way to do it, as that's more their expertise than mine...though we may have figured some things out in the rehearsal hall already. (For Crowns, we knew they could start changing their gloves offstage first, while still singing the end of a verse with live offstage mics, and when they stopped singing, then they'd attend to their hat and jacket, etc.)

Hope this helps. (I also just noticed this was a merged thread, so be sure to look for other answers "above" that are similar.)

Erin