For my first touring role I worked as the head of wardrobe for Kristina Rihanoff’s 2020 UK tour of Dance to the Music. It was a daily touring dance production, so I was traveling to a new venue each day, helping get in all the costume, setting up quick change areas and doing any laundry, and maintenance before the show. I sometimes had to think creatively to solve problems such as fixing an issue with poorly fitting trousers by switching the top half to lycra. During the show I help Kristina with all her changes and help a couple of the other dancers with their quick changes. I then got everything packed up again after the show. Before we set off on tour I did several days of alterations and labelling. Over the course of seven weeks we did 43 shows in 42 different venues across the UK.
I have also worked on a large range of touring productions in my role as a casual dresser for several local theatres, I have worked on a variety of performances including musical theatre, dance shows, ballet, and opera. These range from one time shows, to the standard week long and even on one occasion a month long.
Touring
Theatre
Pantomime
I have so far had the opportunity to work on two large scale pantomimes. My first was Cinderella at the Marlowe Theatre for Evolution Productions, as the wardrobe assistant. On Cinderella we had two weeks of rehearsals during which I helped the head of wardrobe with fittings, alterations and shopping. During the seven week run I did a dressing plot, mainly helping one of the ugly sisters with their costumes, but also doing some quick changes with the rest of the cast. I also carried out maintenance on costumes and did laundry calls as part of my role. We did 83 shows in total, with thirteen shows a week, two shows daily with three on a Saturday!
This all helped prepare me somewhat for my second pantomime which was Beauty and the Beast at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, where I was the wardrobe mistress for UK Productions. I carried out fittings, alterations, laundry and maintenance of costumes, wigs and masks and did a dressing plot during the show. As head of the department I was also in charge of doing any show shopping, organising the laundry rota, call times, and managing an assistant and seamstress. We did a total of 49 performances over the four and a half week run.
Freelance
In my role as a freelance wardrobe assistant I have had the opportunity to work on a wide range of performances in lots of interesting locations, from Bracknell to the Caribbean.
Whilst theatre's are closed due to covid-19 I am working at Legoland Windsor as a wardrobe assistant. I mainly work with the uniform, laundering it, and doing the associated admin, however there are some small shows and characters. We launder, and maintain the costumes for these shows, and helped produce costumes for the 2020 Christmas show. It has also given me a chance to work with the large costume characters.
A recent role was as a travelling wardrobe assistant for Carnival UK, doing cast installs on P&O cruise ships. In this role I and another assistant would fit the cast into all the costumes for the various shows on board and carry out alterations to ensure that they started their contract with well-maintained and fitting costumes. We also watched all dress runs and shows to be able to give notes on how costumes should be worn and fix any costume issues e.g. hats falling off, missed quick changes. There was a wide range of costumes for the variety of performances. There were high street clothes, dance wear, carnival costumes and everything in between. Alterations ranged from hemming trousers and jackets to adding foam and elastic to head pieces.
I have done repertory theatre as a dresser for Shakespeare's Rose Theatre at Blenheim Palace. At this pop up venue there were four shows in rep; Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I did a dressing plot on Romeo and Juliet and another on Richard III, these included pre-sets, quick changes, and dealing with fake blood on actors and costumes. I also did maintenance calls for all four shows. During the technical rehearsals I helped alter costumes for all the shows, working particularly on the stretch fabrics of the fairy costumes.
I have worked on opera as a wardrobe assistant during the technical rehearsals for a new opera called Aurora. I carried out lots of alterations, made a pair of breeches and did pressing and steaming of costumes. Alterations ranged from taking in waistcoats and reducing the crotches of harem pants, to attaching pompoms to shoes and scrap material to bodysuits.
I worked as a Wardrobe Assistant for Lapland UK's 2017 immersive theatre event. It is a four hour Christmas experience for children, they go from the UK to Lapland getting told the history of the elves who live there, as well as Mother and Father Christmas. As an assistant I had several different roles; Principals Dresser, Extras Dresser, Laundry and swing role. These involved getting everyone ready for the start of the day and throughout the day as they took breaks. It’s a continuous all day event with a new tour every half hour, which meant doing alterations and mini makes in a timely fashion.
As a wardrobe assistant on fashion week, I helped to dress models for the runway, and ensured that between shows all garments were pressed and in the correct order for the next show. There were four variations of the show, so ensuring the correct outfits were on the rail was vital.
University
During my time at Rose Bruford, I worked on four productions as part of the wardrobe team. I did three productions as a wardrobe assistant; making, alterations, dressing, and shopping, for casts from 14 to 19 people. I was usually working as part of a team of five to seven assistants, with one or two supervisors. For these shows I worked for about 4 weeks in production with a tech week and three out of four performances; over the course of the dress rehearsals and performances I tried to do all dressing tracks. And for my final role I worked as a costume supervisor; leading a team of assistants and makers, and working alongside the designer to put together costumes for the entire cast. I was responsible for keeping records including a computerised budget and a budget folder with all my paper work in it. I also kept a costume bible which I updated each day after fittings, which included a costume break down, measurements, design and fitting sheets.
At the end of university I spent five weeks on a work placement with Italia Conti's wardrobe department. During my first two weeks I helped at the Avondale site, doing alterations, makes and pulling costumes for the various summer shows. I also worked with the second year shows when they came down to go through costumes for their end of year shows, pulling costumes from the in house store and suggesting what they could source elsewhere.
I then spent the next two weeks working with large casts on Love Me Tinder at the Rhonda Mcgraw Theatre with the diploma students. I worked in the wardrobe and quick change area doing alterations before the shows and then helped with quick changes quick changes, fixing costumes during the shows. At the end of the two weeks I also helped to sort and pack down the quick change area and all the costumes.
I spent my final week helping with their Junior school’s show Be Our Guest in the Avondale theatre, I helped pull costumes, do fittings and altertions. I helped to set up dressing rooms, finish fitting costumes, carry out alterations and help with changes.