As excitement builds for The Outsiders, the next theater production, costuming director Mrs. Forhan reflected on how her love for costume design began. She explained first learning to sew from her mother, with that interest leading her to assist with costuming at Abbott for a musical her daughter was in. The most notable thing taken from that experience was the eye-widening realization that costuming involved far more creativity than simply sewing together patterns.
“And all of a sudden, I just like, you can do that. You can cut cuffs and tie and cut clothing apart and put it back a different way to get what you wanted.” Mrs. Forhan said, “And that, to me, it was just like my head exploded, and I was like, oh. This is super fun. I want to do this.”
She continued to costume at Abbott for the following few years while her own kids were in the program. She took a couple of years off to pursue other volunteer work, then she returned to costuming, this time for Orchard Lake Middle School. Following the pandemic, she was invited over to the high school by former theater director Kristine Stephens. This year marks her fifth in WBHS’s theater program.
Mrs. Forhan remarked on her favorite part of the costuming process, “It’s got to be the creative challenge… I love the challenge of finding the thrifted item, or finding something that maybe we already own, and trying to figure out how we can, you know, like I said before, take the sleeves off one garment and putting them on another,”
Touching briefly on a couple of previous productions, she discussed the many hidden details that costumers put into the outfits they assemble, “I do love those kinds of little tricks, those kind of little elements that really the only the actor might know is part of their costume, the details that you- that the actor can see, or that the costume designer can put into what they’ve done for them,” she added, “The actor sees it and knows that the care has been taken to make their character special, and the audience might not see it, but it’s that it presents an entire look.”
She encourages anyone interested in joining to reach out to her at [email protected].
She emphasized that sewing skills are not a requirement, “You don’t have to know how to sew. Like that’s, I think, a misconception too, that we sew everything from scratch. We do some, a fair amount of sewing, but you don’t need to know how to do that.”
She also gave an important disclaimer; “If you have a love of high fashion or current fashion, and you dress very fashionably yourself, that that doesn’t necessarily mean you would like costuming… We are so much about creating a look for an actor, not worrying about what today’s fashions look like.”
She urged the point that costuming for shows usually ends up being more of piecing together garments from the theater’s costume inventory to fit the director’s vision and the time period of the production rather than designing something one would wear.
“If you’re creative, you have an eye for color, an eye for style, maybe you like to research a little bit- because that’s some of what we do as a group, kind of understanding the history behind the show, or what the playwright or the lyricist has in mind… or if you just are looking for a place to be creative,” she explained, then they might be a great fit for the crew.
“We’re our own little team, so it’s not competitive,” she clarified, “We meet three days a week, and I kind of expect, to the extent that you can make that work into your schedule, I want that commitment.”
For anyone looking to get involved behind the scenes of theater and be a part of a supportive, creative team, the costuming club offers a unique and rewarding experience!
