{"id":6546,"date":"2018-04-13T09:24:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T13:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=6546"},"modified":"2018-04-23T10:55:48","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T14:55:48","slug":"stitch-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2018\/04\/13\/stitch-fix\/","title":{"rendered":"Stitch Fix"},"content":{"rendered":"
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OCTOROON: Faculty and students created the costumes for their fall 2017 production of “The Octoroon.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A peek inside a shop that teaches.<\/em><\/h2>\n

Only a few people know about the magical treasure that fills an ordinary room in the Central Warehouse Building on the Statesboro Campus. The treasure trove is Georgia Southern University\u2019s very own costume shop. It features a collection of costumes from years of student productions. For most actors, costumes help them transform into the characters they play on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can work on a character for months but you never fully have the movement or personality down until you have the clothes on,\u201d said Tyra Wilson, a senior theatre major who has been cast in five main stage productions at Georgia Southern. \u201cAs an actor, it fully throws you into the world to wear the characters clothes, shoes and in some cases jewelry. Getting to see the character shine through on your own body helps the actor disappear and commit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all kinds of garments and accessories,\u201d said Professor Sarah McCarroll, Ph.D., who teaches theatre history, script analysis and costume design. \u201cThey range from the support garments required for specific kinds of plays or productions\u2014women\u2019s corsets for when we do period plays\u2014to men\u2019s and women\u2019s clothing representing a full range of historical periods from Classical Greek through the 18th century right up to today.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarroll and her staff of student workers manage the shop, which supports the University\u2019s Theatre and Performance program. At least four shows are performed each academic year. Last spring\u2019s production of \u201cChicago, The Musical,\u201d had upward of 60 costumes. Many were store bought, but the professor and her staff built a number of daywear pieces, since the production is set in the 1920s. For the recent production of \u201cThe Octoroon,\u201d faculty and students created costumes for the 19th century period piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t run to the mall for a dress from 1895,\u201d McCarroll said. \u201cWe also build clothing if there is a specific need for a show\u2014if a costume has to be able to work in a certain way, or the text requires a very specific look\u2014or if a designer wants a specific look for a piece of contemporary clothing, and it cannot be found for purchase. In general, we don\u2019t make much contemporary clothing. It\u2019s actually much cheaper for me to buy garments from today, especially if I have good luck at Goodwill.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a0LOVE AND CHANCE: “A Game of Love and Chance” was a main stage production at the Center for Art and Theatre in spring 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Learning by Doing<\/h2>\n

No formal classes are taught in the shop, but it does serve as an informal training program for students in the Theatre and Performance program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want students who want to be designers and technicians learning by doing in the same way that our actors are learning by doing in the production program,\u201d explained McCarroll. \u201cAll student employees are hired as stitchers, which means they spend a lot of time in front of sewing machines. As their skill sets increase, they may do some cutting of garments. We all do crafts work when it comes time to make or decorate accessories, and most shop staff work on some or all of the wardrobe crews for shows, so they get experience with hair and makeup.\u201d<\/p>\n

The costume shop is filled with sewing machines, sergers, irons, steamers, dress forms, all kinds of sewing supplies and notions (like scissors, pins, thread, snaps, zippers, elastic, bias tape, belt buckles, beeswax, and\u2014most importantly\u2014seam rippers to undo mistakes), washers and dryers, an industrial steam kettle used for dying fabric, craft supplies, fabric and trim of all kinds. The hanging stock includes pants, shirts, vests, breeches, capes, suits, blouses, hoop skirts, waistcoats, day and formal dresses, men\u2019s and women\u2019s period garments from the classical period to the 1890s, and fantasy wear. There are all kinds of accessories\u2014purses, aprons, shoes, jewelry, armor and wigs.<\/p>\n

In addition to helping student actors learn how to work with designers and technicians when they have costume fittings, the shop allows staff to maintain control of the artistic product. They work closely with the director and other designers for a \u201cunified product in the end or something that looks like it all fits intentionally and goes together really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFittings are always a fun experience for me,\u201d said Wilson, who has worked as a stitcher and an assistant and is planning for a career in artistic management. \u201cSeeing what my designer, in most cases Professor Sarah McCarroll, has in mind for my clothes tends to give me ideas about traits my character may or may not have. I always come in with questions regarding my blocking or movement on stage, to see if the costume can do what I want my body to be able to do to tell my piece of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

After each show, costumes and accessories are stored in the shop. Some may be reused in future productions. McCarroll estimates there could be as many as 15,000 pieces in the facility.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Sandra Bennett<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A peek inside a shop that teaches. Only a few people know about the magical treasure that fills an ordinary room in the Central Warehouse Building on the Statesboro Campus. The treasure trove is Georgia Southern University\u2019s very own costume shop. It features a collection of costumes from years of student productions. For most actors, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":6547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[56],"class_list":["post-6546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-spring-2018"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}