Play List and Costume Crew Work

In my two years at Michigan I worked on many plays, plus dance concerts and several touring plays and rock shows.
Here is a list of the major plays that I worked on while at the University of Michigan:

Showcase Productions - 1978/9

Blood Wedding
Red Roses for Me
People are Living There
In Celebration

1979/80

End of Summer
Tango
The Lion and the Jewel
The Master Builder

Guest Artist Series Production - 1978/79

She Stoops to Conquer
Richard II
The Inspector General
The River Niger

1979/80

Idiot’s Delight
Richard III
Eden
The Relapse

Summer Repertory Productions - 1979

Hay Fever
Ah, Wilderness!
Much Ado About Nothing
Wedding Band

1980

Blithe Spirit
La Ronde
Of Thee I Sing
A Midsummer Night’s Dream


As I had noted in an earlier post, I designed the lighting Blood Wedding, the first play of the year.
All of the technical and design classes at Michigan required some hands on crew work.
At the same time I was working in the scene shop, designing lights for Blood Wedding, working on classroom design projects I had to find time to work in the costume shop.

I was assigned to work on the costumes for the Guest Artist Series production of She Stoops to Conquer.
Mt first job was to learn how to use a seam ripper.
As in many theatre productions, costumes are often reused and altered to fit the design of the new play.
After many hours of deconstruction I was moved into the construction phase and learned to joys of running a serger or baby lock.

I was putting an edge on miles of light blue fabric to be used for petticoats for She Stoops to Conquer at the same time they were working on the costumes for Blood Wedding which were all black.
There was lots of cursing as we tried to share the machine.
It is not too hard to use, OK you could cut your finger off or ruin yards of fabric, but he biggest pain was trying to re-thread it if the thread broke and if you used the wrong color you would have to stop and rip it all out and start all over again.

By the end of my time in the costume shop I was doing OK and they even let my use the regular sewing machine and cut out some cloth for a pocket flap for a vest.
Just as I finished the flap on the vest, the costumer noticed that I had the grain of the corduroy fabric running the wrong way.
Of course everyone in the shop laughed and it was decided that it could stay as it was because it would be under a long overcoat most of the time.

I also had to work on the wardrobe crew for another play and was on the run crew for Red Roses for Me.
I did all the basic prep work making sure everything was ready before the play, but my most important job was working as a dresser backstage during the performance.
At one point in the play the main character goes offstage and is in a fight.
I had to tear apart the shoulder of his suit jacket and apply power to his elbows and knees to make it looked as he had been in a tussle.
After the scene I returned the jacket to the shop where a seamstress would repair it and prepare for the next performance.
That was extent to all of my advanced training in costuming while at Michigan.