Costuming is an extremely important aspect of any theater production, yet most people outside of the theater world don’t know the amount of effort that goes into preparing costumes for a show. Musicals in particular can be a challenge.

Le Moyne puts on several productions each semester, ranging from small student written skits, to plays, to musicals. The final production this semester is Spring Awakening, a coming-of-age rock musical based on Frank Wedekind’s play of the same name.

“Musicals are slightly tricky because there is a certain way to do things and there is a certain tradition behind them,” said Lindsey Voorhees, director of the theater program, assistant professor and resident costume designer at Le Moyne.

“They have first of all, this story that you are supporting with costumes and placemaking, you have to tell the story between relationships of the characters and also the relationships to their world,” said Voorhees, “I think that is what Spring Awakening is all about, how do we tell the story between these characters’ relationship to their world and also their fight to get out of their situation.”

The costuming process often begins before the actors are even cast. Costume designers read through the script and meet with the director of the show to discuss the most important elements of the costumes. Designers make note of the era and world the show is set in, the personalities and appearances of the characters, and any costumes explicitly mentioned in the dialogue. 

Spring Awakening is set in Germany, loosely in the late 19th century. “We’re exploring the Victorian era but we’re trying to make it also feel a little timeless and the trick to this particular musical is it has punk rock elements to it,” said Voorhees.

“They break into their emotion through song and it’s all rock music which is really fun… it also provides a great design opportunity where we don’t have to stick to period so much, and so the intention behind it is that we feel like it’s of another time but we know it’s also commenting on today,” Voorhees said.

The costume team works outside of rehearsals up until tech week – the week leading up to the first performance. Costumes are picked out from stock, borrowed, or made in the shop. Occasionally additional pieces are purchased if they cannot be made and the budget allows.

“A lot of the design process happens after I’ve designed the show on paper,” Voorhees said, “We go into costume storage and based on our budget we may have to redevelop things because our budget doesn’t work or we don’t have enough money to purchase the things we need so we might shift the design a little bit to work with what we already have.”

Spring Awakening had a very low budget, which meant that changes had to be made during the costuming process. “All the guys look similar to each other – it’s almost uniform-like – so that costs more money because we need six of one thing, so making sure we know where we’re putting our budget and where we have to save means that our design might shift a lot,” said Voorhees.

But a low budget doesn’t deter the costume designers, Le Moyne works with various programs in the area and these connections allow for designers to borrow costumes if needed. 

“SUNY Cortland was a great resource for this particular production. I went over there one day to pull costumes and I literally found magical costumes from their production of Sweeny Todd that they did probably 20 years ago… I found all of these beautiful things that will really work for our version of Spring Awakening, now it’s about how to utilize them well,” said Voorhees.

Adjustments are part of the theater process no matter what department you are in and for Voorhees that’s what makes the job exciting. “There is sometimes a reduction of what you think your dream design might be, but I think of it more as a design opportunity, so that creative process is one of my favorites,” Voorhees said.

After the costumes have been selected, the actors have a series of fittings to make sure everything looks and fits right. Fitting costumes is a more lengthy process for musicals due to the amount of movement on stage; occasionally the costume designers attend rehearsals to see what alterations will need to be made according to the choreography. 

“For this show we had two opportunities to go into rehearsals based on fight choreography and also intimacy rehearsals,” said Voorhees. “A lot of times to know what is necessary I have to see what’s actually happening with the blocking and what the actors are doing together.”

Spring Awakening deals with mature themes including intimacy scenes and violence, and in order for the actors to perform safely and comfortably, costumes have to be altered. 

Regarding intimacy scenes, Voorhees said, “Costumes supports that by offering undergarments or the garments have to act in a certain way, whether a shirt is being taken off or a jacket is being used or they have to do a certain type of movement, so we have to make sure the costume supports that movement.”

All fight scenes are choreographed in a way that prevents any harm to the actors, but when physical contact is involved costumes are altered to include additional protection. 

“We do see some actual hitting of a ruler on one of our actors which means we need to protect them, and we do pad out the costumes so any time you do see any contact on stage costumes has provided padding for those moments to make sure our actors are safe,” Voorhees said.

The final steps of the costuming process happen during and between dress rehearsals. The show is run in costume to make sure that everything looks right with the lighting and choreography. 

“We run dress rehearsals about three times during the tech week to make sure everything’s working and we take notes and we adjust throughout the week, so not only are we at rehearsals during the week, we’re in the shop making adjustments… Sometimes there’s big adjustments or changes and other times little shifts,” said Voorhees.

When asked what her favorite part of costume designing is, Voorhees said, “It’s working with the teams that I get to work with, It’s that collaborative piece. When I was young I wanted to be a fashion designer – which is fine – but I like this collaboration between scenic and lights and direction and actors, because every single choice I make has to be a collaboration with all of that. That’s my favorite piece.”

Every aspect of a theater production is important, whether it is visible to the audience or not. There are countless hours of work that go into putting on a production, and a multitude of different departments all working together to create the final product.

It is the collaboration between the lighting, scenic, sound, costuming, directing, and acting that makes theater so wonderful. Spring Awakening is a truly magical show, and the costuming helps the actors to bring the characters to life. 

“I think our actors are doing such an amazing job bringing it to life. I’ve seen it on Broadway once, I knew this show just from listening to the album through the years but it’s the first time I’ve worked on it and it’s powerful, and it’s exciting and it’s moving. I think it will surprise everybody,” said Voorhees.