For the Village Green Theatre Group’s youth production of Alice in Wonderland, costumer Sheryl Cooper has a hand in all of the costumes you see on stage.
Each costume is custom made for every cast member, with measurements taken in April, leaving Mrs Cooper just under three months until show day.
When asked how she gets it done in time, Mrs Cooper said she simply did not know.
“Some weekends, it’s a whole weekend,” Mrs Cooper said of making the costumes, volunteering her time to make the production’s creative vision a reality.
She has a “big, beautiful sewing room” consisting of four sewing machines and two overlockers, so she is able to have three or four costumes on the go at any one time.
To start the creative process, director Sue Barlow collects inspiration pictures for the production.
She then sits down with Mrs Cooper and the two go back and forth in the creative process to ensure the costumes fit the feel of the show.
The costume making process consists of using some new material, along with old material and previous costumes in storage.
“I always pick up pieces of fabric where I can [and] utilise it where I can,” said Mrs Cooper.
Ms Barlow said there was a lot of pulling things apart and reusing what has already been made.
“For the most part we try to recycle and reuse,” Ms Barlow said.
She shared one example from this production where she and Mrs Cooper went op shopping for different textured materials and found a dress which was then made into a peacock costume.
The dress was homemade and Mrs Cooper added a green sash and blue and purple felt feathers.
The costume also has a peacock head that is attached using Velcro on one shoulder and a headdress with real peacock feathers.
Mrs Cooper also makes alterations to the costumes to suit the cast’s needs.
That peacock dress has a split in it for moveability and other costumes have had to be adapted to fit the measurements of the stage.
This production was no small feat, with about 45 costumes required, not all were made from scratch, but each one had alterations made.
With a lifelong love for sewing, Mrs Cooper said she loved the process and seeing her costumes being appreciated by the cast.
“It is so lovely when someone gets into their costume and their character develops.
“It is really rewarding; I do love it.”
It is a similar process at the beginning with the sets too, with Ms Barlow giving the designs to the build team.
“They are amazing at knocking everything out,” said Ms Barlow.
For the sets in this production there are lots of moving parts and Ms Barlow said the team had to purchase a number of wheels for this purpose.
The same recycle and reuse principles are used for the sets since they are pulled apart at the end of the production.
The sets are built in one of the volunteer’s sheds and are subsequently stored in other volunteer’s sheds since the theatre group’s production unit cannot store it.
These will then be transported in trailers to Yarrabilba State Secondary College where the equipment can only be moved in a week before the performance.
This is the first time a Village Green Theatre Group show has sponsors, with three hopping on board to help support the production financially and others providing raffle prizes.
Village Green’s Alice in Wonderland runs from the 3rd to 11th of July, with six shows over the two weekends.
You can buy tickets through trybooking.
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