Unless you are fortunate enough to have individual dressing rooms for each actor, it’s pretty much a given that there will be one common area where all the costumes are kept, and where actors get dressed before and after a show. This area is most likely right off stage!
To keep your costume area sane and tidy, here are some quick tips to help you out.
Make it a rule that actors must help tidy the backstage and keep their costumes neat. Reinforce the idea of teamwork — everyone pitches in.
The backstage tech team are not the actors’ servants. Remind performers that if a costume piece gets dirty, wrinkled, or goes missing, it’s the actor’s responsibility to figure out the situation.
Make this an early theme in rehearsals, it will solve a lot of problems down the line.
Keep a written list of each item that each actor has, so the actors and costume team can refer to it. For example:
Kevin – white button down shirt, black pants, piano key necktie, black dress shoes
Sophie – white button down shirt, black skirt, white apron, black character shoes
Katie – burgundy corset, red leather jacket, white tutu, black booty shorts, black character shoes etc.
This way, if something goes missing, you can refer to the list and see who it might belong to. If anything, it will help you retrace steps and put responsibility on individuals.
Also make sure to label costumes on the inside with painters tape and sharpie. This will not damage the costume so it can be sued for future shows.
Actually laying out dividers helps people stay within their space. You can do this by making tape lines on tables that each prop should be kept in. You can also do this by having specific hangers/bags that divide the areas on racks of clothing.
If your changing area has hooks on the wall (for example, in the school’s gym changing rooms), assigning each actor a hook to hang their items can be useful.
During the show, if there is room, each actor could get a laundry basket with their name on it to throw their stuff into during quick changes, and then after each performance, the actor takes their basket and sorts everything and hangs it up.
Read more about what to bring to help your actors on and off stage here!
If all else fails and items don’t get hung up or properly stored, after each show, collect all the items that are not hung up and put them in a box.
Before the next show, the actor has to “buy back” each item, either with actual cash (usually 25 cents to a dollar per item!) or with a task/dare/”punishment” (like singing to the director, push-ups or sit-ups, etc). I’ve found that this tactic works extremely well.
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