Lauren Glover '11 talks about her experiences working in the costume shop and behind the scenes on mainstage productions.
I started working in the Theatre Department's Costume Shop during my freshman fall. I had originally gone to the department's open meeting for first-year students in hopes of an audition. I walked out with a work-study position.
Before I came to Dartmouth, I was able to quilt and do basic mending of hems. Upon starting work in the Costume Shop, I was taught how to construct clothing based on its fabric type, how to tailor clothing to the body and how to quick-change (dressing actors and changing them from one full-costume to another - usually in less than a minute).
The first show thatI dressed was Hair. The sheer amount and color of the costumes made the Costume Shop and Stock look magical and otherworldly. Although, it took quite a while to regain feeling in my fingers after sewing fringe. Since then, I've sewn, tailored and dressed for Julius Ceasar, Stop Kiss, and Rocky Horror. I've also done some costume design for The Black Underground Theater Association.
As a senior, I've recently finished working on Two Gents. The environment is quite fun because of my relationship with the actors; most of them tease me, saying that I've yet to dress them or that I've dressed them for every show that they've been a part of.
Alhough most of my time in the Costume Shop now is spent training new dressers or showing my friends how to mend a coat button (real-life skills!), I still see the Costume Shop as something of a sanctuary away from campus for me. There are days when I show up and sort buttons or hem pants simply because it's mindless and allows me to sort through my thoughts if I'm feeling overwhelmed.
Why get paid to do homework with a library job when you can get paid to play dress-up?
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