Lauren Hadley, Lab

For this week’s lab hours, I had the opportunity to help at the first dress rehearsal for Mary Poppins. When I first arrived, it was complete chaos. Half-dressed actors and actresses were running around asking questions about their costumes because they were unclear what went with what. I mainly focused and helped with the female actresses, zipping up, safety pinning, and bobby pinning. Since it was the first night of dress rehearsals, the actors only had to put on their costumes and did not have to worry about hair or make-up. Aliya, the girl who played Miss. Corry, and I did not know how to put her costume on. We were confused with all the petticoats and bustles she had. Finally, we asked for help and figured it out and she looked great. Taylor did a wonderful job on her costume. One of the biggest challenges of the first dress rehearsal was that a lot of costumes still needed mending or altering. I did not think there would be that many but there were a ton. When and if we came across a costume which needed fixing or altering, there was a system. You wrote the name of the actor or their character, and exactly what needed to be done. When I got there, only 3 alterations were on the chalk board, by the time I felt, the entire board was covered and an additional five pages of notes that Dan had taken. Side note: Dan is a super star! From my observations, he helped so much backstage and there would have been a lot more chaos without him.

** Below is a picture of the finished product of Bert's patchwork vest.