by Priscilla

Nov.29, 2011, under Backstage Blog

A wardrobe mistress is in charge of the wardrobe department, which maintains all the costumes and a lot of the headpieces for the show. In short, we make sure that everyone is wearing what he or she should be wearing at the right time on stage and that those costumes look great. Priscilla is a challenging show from a costume standpoint, because there are over 500 of them, and as anyone who has seen the show will know, they are mainly big, flamboyant pieces.

Wardrobes backstage

We have a costume diary where the dressers write notes from that day stating any repairs or damages that have occurred. Members of wardrobe will also write notes and reminders as we go and then we come in around 2pm on a one show day and 11:30am on a two show day to undertake all the work on the costumes.

The costumes are amazing, but they can be a nightmare when it comes to maintenance, partly because they are getting old now. Priscilla has been running for nearly three years and the costumes have to do eight shows a week in a high energy show. Some of the costumes, like the Go West outfits, are from the original Australian production, so it’s a challenge to keep them all looking fresh and new. One of the most difficult things are the feathers, and in particular the Les Girls headdresses. There are multiples of nearly all the costumes, so there’s a lot of repetitive work.

I’ve worked on a lot of shows before Priscilla including, Wicked, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes and lots of big plays. You need to get as much experience as you can if you want to work in wardrobe. I’m all for giving people work experience to learn their craft, but on a big show like this you need to know people understand what they are doing, so it’s important to get as much experience as you can.

I love I Will Survive and Finally, they are both fantastic feel good numbers and when you’ve had a bad day, you just have to watch them to remind yourself why you do it all. I think it will be such a shame for London when the show closes. If you don’t see Priscilla you will have missed a cracking piece of theatre.