Piedmont Players Theatre Buys Eastern Costume Company

One of the largest and most respected costume companies in the country is moving to Salisbury, NC. Salisbury theatre company Piedmont Players Theatre (PPT) purchased the Greensboro-based Eastern Costume Company on Tuesday and immediately began moving the costume company's equipment into a space in the center of downtown Salisbury. Long time owner, Juanita Dunlap, is retiring at the end of the year. Dunlap and her team have built a 35-year reputation for building the highest quality costumes in the industry with a focus on authenticity and style.

PPT Resident Director Reid Leonard said Eastern Costume Company would begin operating in January 2015 with a similar business model as the previous owner. The company will continue to send costumes and outfits to various theaters throughout the country, but also welcome walk-in customers. "We're killer excited about this," said PPT Resident Director Reid Leonard. "Now instead of people going to Greensboro to pick costumes up, they'll just come to Salisbury to pick up from us. It's going to create an enormous amount of new traffic."

A few of the reasons for the $150,000, Leonard said, were a need for costumes, the ability to generate more income and be able to work with theater companies throughout the country. Although the name, service and quality will remain the same, one of the key differences with the new Eastern Costume is an online presence, including social media and the ability for customers nationwide to order online.

Currently supplying and building costumes for an average of 2-3 productions per week from coast to coast, the collection of costumes is truly massive at more than 40,000 total pieces, most of which were built from scratch by Dunlap and her team.

In order to make the transition a smooth one for PPT and current customers, some of the previous employees of Eastern Costume will be coming to Salisbury to work with PPT. The relationship between PPT and Eastern Costume is not a new one. "We've been doing shows with them since 1988," Leonard said. "We know most of the stuff and several of the kids doing the unload would say, 'Oh, there's my old costume.' "

The Eastern Costume Company's location will be underneath Innes Street Drug Store in Downtown Salisbury, with its entrance being located adjacent to the drug store's at 112 S. Main St.

To post a comment, you must register and login.