NRT Excitement with Emma: Costumes Preview for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike!

Sometimes one of the most exciting things about seeing live theatre is the costumes! They have the power to set the tone for a show--a poorly costumed show can be detrimental to a production. Luckily, here at Nebraska Rep, we have an outstanding costume shop. Today, I'll give you a sneak peek of the costumes to be worn in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. I snuck down to the costume shop yesterday to give you all the first look!

As a costume designer, Janice Stauffer first designs the costumes first on paper, called renderings. Here are some of Janice's original renderings for the show.

Once the costumes have been rendered, they are brought to life with the help of the stitchers in the costume shop! In the play, the characters attend a costume party together. Masha decides that they ought all attend the party as characters from Disney's Snow White. 

Masha's "Snow White" Costume

Vanya's "Doc the Dwarf" Costume

Nina's "Dopey the Dwarf" Costume

Spike's "Prince Charming" Costume

Nina's Princess Costume

After the costumes take shape, the actors make an appointment with the shop for a costume fitting. From there, the designer and stitchers adjust their original measurements to ensure the best fit for the actor!

Actor Brenna Hill (Nina) getting fitted for her "Dopey" costume

Actor Kristie Berger (Masha) tries on her nearly completed "Snow White" costume

Actors Hayden Spaeth (Spike), Kristie Berger (Masha), and Lawrence MacGowan (Vanya) make quite the trio as Prince Charming, Snow White, and Doc!

 You won't want to miss these costumes in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. The production opens a week from today! Call the Lied Center Ticket Office now for tickets at 402.472.4747.

Costumes for "Making God Laugh"

This is part two of the conversation I had with Sharon Sobel about designing the costumes for Mrs. Mannerly and Making God Laugh.  Whereas Mrs. Mannerly and Emma are both shows that take place in just one clothing era, Making God Laugh is spread over four decades.   The family gets together on Thanksgiving in the 1980's, Christmas in the 1990's, New Year's Eve at 1999 (or Y2K), and Easter in 2010.  
To shows such a range of time periods, Sharon had to design each character's costumes to reflect the change in time periods.  Thomas, one of the sons, is priest for the first couple of get-togethers, so he doesn't quite have the same costume arc.  Then, with the father, Bill, and the mother, Ruthie, Sharon felt like their clothes wouldn't be that drastically different because they are older and more set in a type of clothing styles.  Instead, she changed their costumes to reflect the change in holidays.  Ruthie gets different aprons for each of the holidays, and Bill has a series of sweaters in which the colors reflect the holiday.

Maddie, the daughter, and Richard, the eldest son, get to have costumes that cover the full range of style changes.  For Maddie, Sharon got inspiration from the clothes of Pat Benatar.  Although the text mentions Madonna, she ends up being more late 80's, and Sharon wanted to stick with the style of the early 80's, which has a lot in common with late 1970's style.  Then, for the 90's, Sharon used one of her own sweaters.
For Richard, he is meant to be a character highly influenced by all of the latest fads and trends.  When he shows up to the house on New Year's Eve 1999, he comes in military gear because he is so paranoid about Y2K.     For the 80's and 90's, she used Tom Selleck, Herb from WXRP, Travolta for hair styles, Duran Duran, Fame, and Flock of Seagulls.  

So, that is the rundown on the costumes, but it doesn't take the place of coming to see them on stage! So, you better follow the tabs above to "Buy a Ticket" to see Making God Laugh.

Costumes for Mrs. Mannerly

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Sharon Sobel, who designed the costumes for Mrs. Mannerly and Making God Laugh.  I'll keep what she told me about Making God Laugh for next week, but thought you might enjoy hearing about upcoming costumes in Mannerly (because it opens tomorrow night!).

For Mrs. Mannerly, Sharon's main costume inspiration was pictures of Kay Thompson, specifically Kay Thompson in Funny Face. Sharon also said that she saw Mannerly as a woman who is "secluded by Manners." Although Mrs. Mannerly is set in the 60's among lots of cultural and political turmoil,  none of that really seems to exist.  Instead, Mannerly's world is still all manners and etiquette and creates an interesting mindset for her.

In theory, Jeffrey is slightly trickier to costume because the same actor that plays Jeffrey also plays the four other children in the manners class.  In theory, you could do quick changes or alter part of the costume to help with those changes; instead, Mark McCarthy, who plays Jeffrey, changes his body language and voice for each of the kids while maintaining the same costume.  Jeffrey, himself, is a very mature 10-year-old, and his costumes reflect that.  He gets those trendy 1960's hush puppy shoes, a sweater vest, and a rather sharp suite for his big manners test at the climax of the play.  He, like Mrs. Mannerly, is also a character that uses manners and appearance to create an outer character that is more polished and "mannered" then his inner self, and Jeffrey's costumes do a great job of showing his more formal outer self.

If you want to see the costumes in person, well then you will just have to come see the performance! 

Costumes for Emma

My day-to-day schedule as the summer intern at the Nebraska Repertory Theatre is never the same. One day I’ll be running errands and hanging posters; the next I’ll be working with social media or sewing in the costume shop.

Costume Shop Hard at Work

A highlight of my summer has been interacting with the actors. The opportunity came about when I got the chance to take pictures of costume fittings before the opening night of Emma (which is July 11th).  It was such a joy to see the first drawings of the costumes become a beautiful reality.  With each character came a new pallet of color with festive patterns to help you feel like you went back in time. It was fun to hear which gown or coat they liked best or see if they needed an adjustment here or there. I also enjoyed seeing how each garment fit them in completely different ways, bringing out the true beauty of the English 19^th century and its glorious style.

I want to thank the designers and selected actors for letting me take photos and show the public a sneak peek a couple days before opening night. If you'd like to see all of the pictures, click here. 

I hope all of you enjoy the NRT production of Emma and its exquisite costumes. See you at the show!

Thanks to all the wonderful women in the costume shop: +Katie Davis, Kayla Klammer, Rachel Owings, +Mallory Prucha, Janice Stauffer, and Ann Watson.

Costume Fitting Collages:

Costuming Emma

Last week, I talked with one of the costumers, +Katie Davis, who worked on researching 19th century fashion and the fashion of Jane Austen.  In talking with her, I found out a lot about the inspirations for the show and about how the costumes connect to the characters.

Regency Era:

The costumes for Emma are drawn from the Regency Era.  The Regency Era ran from 1795-1830 and the dress of the time is one marked by "simplistic elegance."  You can see this in the sense of line, color, and silhouette.  Katie created a Pinterest Board of the Regency Era and there are of Regency Boards that you can peruse on Pinterest.    I also just made a Pinterest Board to start collecting images either from our production or that inspired the production, and that incorporated some of Katie's Pinterest collection.  

Corsets:  

Since I was able to see the stages of making a corset on my last trip to the costume shop, I asked Katie more about what are the characteristics of the corsets in the early 19th century.  She said that for one, it raises the bust line so that the bust is in a higher range.  The style also has slightly less rigid boning and is a longer length, covering the hips instead of just stopping at the top of the hips.  The effect of this style of corset is the way it creates a sense of formality because of how straight the corsets makes the wearer stand.  For the female performers in Emma, the corsets ended up really helping the performer create a certain movement and almost enforce a particular way they will have to hold their bodies and move around.  

Colors in the Shows:  

In order to give insights into each character, the main characters all have their own color palette.  I loved this idea because whenever I read a book, I think about what color I would associate with this person.  Here are some examples:

• Emma wears pink and lavender 
• Mrs. Elton wears stripes and jarring colors (to match her personality).  
• Harriet ends up wearing costumes in cotton since she isn't as wealthy as the other characters.  The cotton makes her clothes lay a little differently which will also show her difference in status.  

My favorite pairing, though, is one that I wouldn't have thought of, but that made perfect sense.  For Jane Fairfax, the costumers put her in blues because she has been a little depressed.  

Funny Tidbit:  

One thing that Katie found in her research is that men would wear flats during dances.  However, that style of flats is really hard to find in men's shoes.  So, most of the flats in the show are just really large sizes of women's shoes.

Coming up in a couple of weeks, Emma Gruhl is doing a podcast interview with the head costume designer, Janice.  So, stay tuned to hear about what insights she gives into the costumes.  

Ribbing and Grommets and Corsets, Oh My!!

On Tuesday, I stopped into the costume shop to see what was going on, and I ended up getting a little lesson on corsets.  For NRT's production of Emma, the costume shop is making six 19th century style corsets, one for each female performer.

Janice Stauffer, the costume designer for Emma, let me take pictures of a corset in progress, from patterns to piecing together though boning and adding grommets:

Stages of a Corset

 While there, I also heard a bunch of loud hammering coming from part of shop.  Not sure what would involve hammering in a costume shop, I went to investigate.  I found out that one of the stages of making a corset is adding the grommets, which are the reinforced eyelets for the corset's lacing.  Although I wouldn't have thought it was such an intensive process, adding grommets has a lot of steps and so I went ahead an filmed a demonstration for you. 

Each corset has about eight grommets per side.  So, with six corsets for Emma, this process will be repeated ninety-six times!

I learned so much in visiting the costume shop and I look forward to finding out more to share with you throughout the weeks!