Stage Directions • April 2019 • Three Questions

What is the one thing that Stage Directions’ readers should think when they hear the name MSMT Costumes?

That we are based around quality costuming. We have well-made pieces in our packages that try to emulate the iconic look and feel of what we think of, when we think of the musical that we’re about to produce.

Many of your show packages come from Maine State Musical Theatre’s productions but you also buy packages to add to your inventory, right?

Yes. So, for example if there’s a theater that we work with a lot, and they might do a show that either we did a while back, or it’s not on our radar, but we know that, that costume package will rent, we’ll talk to them about buying it from them once they’re done. Like Hunchback, we haven’t done Hunchback at Maine State, and we’re buying that costume package from another theater.

Then there’s shows that Maine State is doing, like this summer’s Hello Dolly, we already have a package of Hello Dolly, but we’re building a brand new one, because our current Hello Dolly is maybe a decade old. We’re also building The Wizard of Oz, which Maine State hasn’t done since 1961. So that is exciting, because we didn’t have a package for The Wizard of Oz, but we’ve been wanting one for years. I feel like that’s a costume package every costumer company should have and now we do.

What are some pieces among the MSMT costume packages inventory that you particularly love?

I love more of the fantasy, sparkly things. Like the toy costumes in Mary Poppins, or the strange characters in Little Mermaid, or the Centaur in Xanadu. One of the most interesting is the trick Eddie costume for Sister Act. He goes from a cop, to disco dancer, back to a cop. Some of the most exciting things that we work on here, are things that are tricked out somehow. They have a double purpose, or a triple purpose, and is a surprise to the audience.

One of the things that I love here, is the history of some of these packages, like our Spamalot package was used in the London production, and built on Broadway. So, we’ve learned a lot just by studying how those costumes were built, and the tricks that they have, like the Black Knight. And it’s also fun, because you see Tim Curry’s name in some of the King Arthur costumes. His actor label is still sewn in there.

That’s one of the great things about working at a costume rental company, you think about all the people that are wearing these pieces of costumes, and all the people that are touching the costumes, and caring for these pieces, and cleaning them, and what kind of day did someone have when they were wearing the costume. You think about their life, the life of the costume. And then they come back, and they’re all clean, and we hang them back up, and re-inventory, and ship them off to another company and their history continues.