Learning From Our Theater Legends

My friend Sheila recently redecorated her living room. What did she do with her old drapes? Throw them away? Give them to charity?

No - without thinking twice she brought them to me. She's learned…..

Two weeks later she was helping me alter ball gowns for a production at The Players Club of Swarthmore Theater. She was following my directions to put sleeves into a strapless gown to make it fit the period of the show when suddenly she realized that the sleeve fabric looked very familiar.

It was her old drapes.

I've been costuming shows for many years, but it wasn't until I worked with the late Dorothy Trauberman at Footlighters Theater in Berwyn, PA about twenty years ago that I learned the art of recycling, theater-style.

Dorothy was a champion at making theater costumes out of other people's castoffs. The tricks I learned from her have enabled me to create impressive-looking gowns and period costumes from old draperies, slipcovers and other discards. Once I was in a panic about a lot of Victorian era dresses that were needed for a production that was opening in two weeks. No time to shop, plan, design - what to do?

The show opened on time. The audience particularly ooed and aahed over one pale green gown. It hung beautifully on the actress because it was lined, double hemmed, and weighted to allow it to drape properly. Who had taken time for such detail?

I just smiled and said thank you. It was some time before anyone noticed that the curtains were missing from one of the windows in the ladies' room….

Hey, no hemming needed, and the lining and weights were already in them! A few well-planned cuts and couple of simple seams and the curtains were reborn as the best gown on the star of the show! Dorothy, God rest her soul, would have been so proud….

This is but one example of tricks of the trade that we can learn from those who have been treading the boards of area theaters for many years. It is why we at StageMagazineOnline.com are gathering interviews with our local "Legends in Theater." We want to save the heritage, the lessons and the stories for the future. Not only will we save the younger generation from "reinventing the wheel" - having to discover some of these neat things for themselves - we will be turning them loose to create their own legend stories! Ethel