Being pinned, hitched and squeezed - all in a days work

It is time to fill you in on what’s going on in the Wardrobe department regarding the costumes for Glengarry Glen Ross. Seven men in suits appears to be a fairly easy brief at first. But then…it has to be the right suit for the character, an appropriate colour, texture and cut. To look as if it has come from the 80’s certainly; maybe up-to-date 80’s for Roma (remember double breasted, wide shoulders and pleat fronted trousers?) but tired and well worn late 70’s for Levene. It can’t be tweedy and English – this is Chicago! And the suit has to look like it belongs to its wearer; we have to believe that he actually chose it from a shop or a tailor at some point.
Fortunately I have some good luck on my side in that the Library Theatre Co has a very good stock of modern day costumes where I can start my search. So Liz, our wardrobe supervisor, Jeanette, our wardrobe assistant and I set to work to drag out any suits, macs or jackets which may be useful. Liz has a great eye for men’s costume and knows at a glance if I am straying into the 1960’s or the 1990’s. She is happy to alter costumes to fit, but you can only go far with tailoring before it loses its shape altogether, so we sort the suits out by size and allocate them to each actor. You can see the costume rail with copies of the costume drawings pinned on in the photo. Later in the week, we will call the actors for costume fittings and try to get a fit not only literally, but also between character and costume.Actors can’t afford to be shy; they have to get their kit off and let us get them into the costumes even if it involves being pinned, hitched up or squeezed into a corset. I have seen some memorable underwear during a long career in theatre, but professional discretion does not allow me to tell you more!

Back to Glengarry! I can’t find a suitable brownish late 70’s suit for Levene in the right size amongst our stock, so we decide to ask our freelance tailor to make us one to fit. The other option would be for me to go down to London to hire one from the big costume hire place, Angels, but the prices are high, there is my train fare to consider and if we get one made it will be available for future shows as part of our stock. Liz and Jeanette find some good fabric and so that job is now on-going. Hopefully, the fittings will go well and we can get most of the rest from stock, which would be great news for the budget. I’ll let you know how we get on.