“Company” is one of those unique shows that I’ve always felt connected to. I felt the call to go back to costumes with “Company” because it’s one of those shows I needed to be part of but I could not imagine directing. This was right after I had assistant directed “Fiddler on the Roof” for five months and was about to direct “Any Time Any Way,” a play that I wrote. Plus, I always had a lot of opinions on the costumes in various productions of Company, and I knew I could do a really good job using them to help tell the story.
The greatest asset I had in making the costumes for this show was my assistant, Lizzie. She played Bielke in Fiddler, and I had found out a few weeks before that she was a wizard when it came to costumes and wanted to get her feet wet before costuming next year. So when she asked me I instantly said yes. As a designer I always love having people to bounce ideas off of and help balance the workload, so that made me even more excited to work on this show. I worked on five shows during this final semester, most at the same time, and knowing I had another person around when I got super busy was a massive help.
One of the first things we did was talk to the directors. They wanted to set things kind of in the 80s-90s which was pretty easy to work with. Most characters stayed in the time period, but a couple people, specifically Amy and Jenny were dressed a little bit older in styles more reminiscent of the 1950s and 60s because it fit their characters. The directors wanted a lot of colors, lots of sweaters and comfortable business casual, and most girls in skirts/dresses other than that and a couple of ideas we talked about gave me free rein in creating the costumes.
The next big thing I did was talk to the cast about their characters. I always say that the actors know their characters best, and oftentimes our opinions for the characters were the same, but sometimes they had a great idea for how they envisioned their character that I just rolled with. I also wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable with what they were wearing, because a lot of times act
Company is all about Bobby and how the other characters differ or are similar to him. We ended up making our Bobby blue, so I chose to have characters differ in color depending on how close he is to them. The other main thing I kept in mind was making sure every couple fit together. I started with the three girls in the show seemingly closest to Robert, April is in a bright blue flight attendant uniform just a shade brighter than Robert, Amy a light blue dress with a frantic pattern that is just off from Bobby, and Kathy in a green floral dress that feels slightly off of Bobby’s blue. They all sort of match Robert but none are an exact fit. This extends out to the other couples as well. Amy and Paul have sweaters in the same kind of tan with white and light blue accents. Larry and Joanne are decked out in black and gold. Peter and Susan are in various warm shades of brown. Harry and Sarah both wear khakis. And Jenny and David both wear greens. Marta has layers of black with pops of red to show how different she is to everyone else, but the look still goes with April and Kathy.
I also played with patterns a lot. A patterned dress for Amy to show her frantic energy. And for Peter and Susan, the divorced couple that still lives together, they’re united in having browns in their color palettes, but Susan has plaid and Peter has stripes, showing their differences in compatibility.
One of the best days for me as a costumer has always been our photo day. It’s the first time we truly get to see the costumes on the actors and feeling alive and complete. It’s all the little details like sweaters and jewelry coming together that make it magical. People doing twirl tests and admiring each others looks and figuring out exactly where to roll their sleeves to. Being responsible for making people feel confident and in character with what they are wearing is a beautiful thing.
Another thing I noticed with this show was that the costumes truly made them look like they were in their 30s and 40s rather than early 20s, and even though a lot of people didn’t love the sweaters because of the heat, most agreed that it helped them get into character and feel a little older.
My costume work was mostly done after photo day, but I did run crew for the show as well, which was delightful. There were of course some quick fixes during tech and the shows, a sweater got ruined by a wax melt and we ended up just cutting it, we had to figure out how to get a hat to stay on, and a pair of pants ripped during our final show, and a pin I made for April just would not stay together, but those were all little things.
Company was the first Sondheim show Actors Creating Theatre ever did and I was so proud to be a tiny part of that. Costuming Company was one of the most fun experiences I had on a show in years, and I truly had a blast costuming a final show for all of those good and crazy people, my friends.
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