One of OLT audiences’ favourite types of play is the period piece with a large cast and very elaborate costumes. It’s always a big job with lots of moving pieces. We interviewed Teal Cochrane who, as Costume Designer for the upcoming Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, was up for the enormous challenge of transporting us back to the Regency Period 1815.
Teal and her husband Greg Hancock (director of the play) recently relocated from Huntsville in the Muskokas to Ottawa where she now works for an international engineering firm.
The couple have worked together on 10 productions (two at the OLT: Miss Bennet and Of Mice and Men). They have a great time collaborating, but every so often they have to remind each other to stop working and not bring it home. That being said, it’s a good challenge.
Teal has a strong background in theatre, having graduated from the program at George Brown College and having studied for two years at the famous Second City in Toronto. Her first foray into costumes was at age 17 when she was in charge of the wardrobe department at a local theatre and later taking on the role of sound technician.
The OLT has a huge inventory of costumes both on site and in our warehouse. Teal estimates that there must be at least 5,000 pieces. It’s always a challenge and a thrill after lots of digging to find that right piece. She does a lot of research because she feels it‘s important to give the audience a full experience by honouring the time period. She reads the play several times visualizing each character while drawing the designs. She develops a colour palette in collaboration with the set designer and the director so that each character has specific colours to match their idiosyncrasies. Once a cast is in place, they can see what they have in inventory, what can be adapted and what needs to be created.
Miss Bennet takes place during the Regency period (1811-1820). OLT has a large inventory of Victorian era(1837-1901) apparel so some modifications have to be made. Fortunately the Regency style (as is the case with all styles) is cyclical and fluid and you can borrow from other periods. The ladies are wearing Victorian corsets because that’s what we have, not Georgian era (1714-1837). Although the audience doesn’t see them, they do see how a corset changes movement, carriage, posture and vocal presentation, so that’s why we insisted on them from the first day of rehearsal. Teal even added an interesting point that Empire waists (1800-1815) were popular again in the 1970s…yes the 1970s !, so clothes from the disco age can be rejigged fora Regency piece.
Teal Cochrane, Costume Designer and Callie Legault , Costume Assistant hold up Lydia’s Christmas gown .
There are quite a number of tricks of the trade learnt over the years. In order to sew a large number of costumes for a big production, rather than buy bolts of fabric it’s more economical to buy used drapes and sheets from places like Value Village. Not only is it much cheaper but the patterns and textures can be more elaborate. ( Just remember to take out the curtain rods, unlike Carol Burnett in her famous TV skit).
Sizing is always an issue. Sometimes you find the perfect piece but it just does not quite fit the actor. Today as always, it’s always easier to take something in than let it out. But if necessary, you can let it outby attaching a panel, or you canlengthen pants by adding material to make a cuff. Other times you just have to move on and find something else.
As the events of the play take place over four days, each actor has four outfits to wear – 30 costumes in total. Part of the design challenge is to make it so an actor can get in and out of a costume very quickly and self sufficiently. Even though a well written play allows for transition time, sometimes a quick switch cannot be avoided. Each night a crew of two dressers help out the cast. For Miss Bennett, the fastest change takes place in 45 seconds.
Teal took all this into consideration when designing the clothes. Men’s clothing during the Regency erawas very tailored with no zippers. In order to allow the male actors to get in and out of their costumes quickly, false panels with buttons over the zippers give a seamless illusion. The play also called for a lot of vests to indicate the change of day. Regency vests are longer than Victorian ones so the crew made them longer and reversible thus decreasing the labour required. The vests have snaps allowing for quick changes, and the outside elaborate buttons are just for show.
One of the biggest challenges was finding a prop “baby belly” as one of the characters is noticeably “with child” (as the expression of the era states). Costume shops did not have one so it was off to the maternityshops where they are used to try on clothes for future wear.
The most elaborate costume, and the one Teal is most proud of, is Mary’s Christmas dress, but you just have to wait to see it at the play.
One of the questions that always pops up is how do you clean the costumes and how often? All of the clothing is washed before, during and after the production.The delicates are hand washed with vinegar to bring out the white. The theatre has washing machines and a specialozone machine that does a form of dry cleaning essential for delicates. Here’s a quick life hack provided by Teal: a mixture of diluted vodka sprayed on the shirts can quickly rid them of odors without washing.
Hopefully not a lot of repairs need to be done on the costumes. However theatre is rougher on an outfit than everyday life; the actor has to get in and out of costume very quickly, and vintage pieces may not be all that sturdy. Teal makes sure that each outfit is in good shape prior to working with it but things happen; clothes get snagged on the set, buttons pop off – but the crew are present for repairs.
Teal remarks that Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley has a fabulous cast and everyone has connected very well. It feels like a big family at Christmas and she is very excited to be part of the production.
Teal has recently been nominated as Best Actress by Broadway World for her role as“Gin”in the OLT production of Mending Fences.
Albert