Project Report Part Four: Costumes

It has been a very busy two weeks for me. In addition to babysitting my granddaughter two days a week, I have been cleaning out the shed, painting the wood for our new deck railing, planting the garden and organizing costumes for our next community theater play, The Trials of Robin Hood.

Robin Hood: lusty hero, hopeless lover, or evil criminal? Upon his return from the Crusades, King Richard is forced to try to figure out what happened in his kingdom during his absence. Is the outlaw Robin Hood a hero, a lovelorn sap, or just plain mean? Told from the perspectives of Robin himself, Maid Marian, and Prince John, this hilarious tale combines three different stories into one -- and with three different endings, leaves it up to the audience to decide which one is true. source

We have 39 actors ages 10-19, and about 80 parts. Only a handful of actors play just one part; most of them play two or three. There are some quick costume changes to take into consideration! I am in charge of the costumes, but I have a great crew of volunteers who are making many cloaks, vests, tunics, headdresses, and hats. In addition to oodles of planning and list-making, I end up doing most of the alterations, and making one or two garments along the way. Here is what I made this weekend:

This was a basic graduation gown. I added velcro to the opening, which will be in the back. I cut the sleeves down a little, and made a casing for elastic in the wrist. This is for Prince John.

This off-white shirt was made by someone else for a previous play, and was kept in our costume stash. All I had to do was make a casing at the wrist so it looks more peasant-y and won't hang down so far on the small boy who wears it. I did this for two such shirts.

This doesn't look a great deal different from the last photo, but it is a much larger shirt. Again, we already had one in The Stash, so I used it for a pattern to make two more, so each Robin Hood has his own white shirt.

Today I brought home some dresses that need to be hemmed up. A relative of one of the moms loaned us several wonderful medieval-style dresses, but many of our actors are quite small, so hemming is in order! I will plan to post pictures when I get around to that job in a few days.