Clark in Sarajevo - Blacks & Sacks

Okay so I mentioned the idea of blogging this process and I've decided I will - for bits and pieces. So we were asked to request roles. I'm outrageously busy right now so I asked for a small onstage role and was given two nice small onstage roles with abour 10 lines total - which was perfectly fine with me because I don't want any more lines to learn! (oh that doesn't include chorus by the way) So to compensate for my lack of stage time the director assigned me head of wardrobe department. Again fine with that because it didn't involve line learning. I've done wardrobe a few times but mainly with small cast's - not with a cast of 26! most of whom need multiple costumes! I have a team of five others helping me design and draft and cut and sew and fit costumes for the 26 cast members. With a small budget - not kidding for a cast that big it's a very small budget - but we are going to succeed in this task. After discussions the prop's department realised they aren't going to require half their budget because they've sourced about 70% of what's needed already - for free - so the costume and set groups were given the rest of the prop budget to be used discreetly at their disposal. Anyway. We've timelined it all. Set dates where certain things must be achieved. and by the end of this week we have decided to attempt to finish all 25 chorus costumes! There is only one person who at any time is not a chorus member and that's "Clark" himself. Our cheap solution for chorus costumes in a war-torn country. "Blacks and Sacks" - is what it has become known as to us. Yes all blacks - which people are required to have for the unit anyway so it's FREE! and sacks - heshem sacks. Which when presented to the cast and crew was laughed at. But I've seen similar done before using heshem and calico with black pants. It's effective and fits our purpose and the style we were going for as a whole crew. One of the costume girls offered sacks used at her dad's farm - which we were going to wash and line with calico - but these proved insufficient so she took it upon herself to source out a company that amkes sacks which shockingly was only 10min drive from my house and at about $1:05 (GST) a large bag (and they're quite big) we rang, ordered and picked up 30 giant heshem bags for about $35. Bargain number one - and our biggest worry vanished. So now my car boot is stuffed with heshem sacks which today will be lined with calico and patterns will be drawn up to begin cutting. The sacks are going to be used to make items of clothing such as dresses, jackets, vests, skirts, shalls, scarves, belts, leg wraps etc. Dressed up with the three colours to represent the three different ethnic groups involved in the war these costumes - in theory - should look quite effective. But after being unable to source what we wanted quickly enough we've had to puch everything back a week - which is alright because had purposely left a week before mid semester break in case something like this happened. We have to have at least three to five costumes made to present to the cast by Wednesday which should be achievable today and tomorrow afternoon. I will post some pictures when the chorus costumes are put together - to give a taste as to the feel of this show. Also I'd like to thank those people who have offered their services with the hair and make-up. Professionals rarely offer anything for free so it's muchly appreciated. Our next challenge is dressing the two - the main roles are double cast - Clark's and Lala's. Which is going to be as expensive as the chorus - no doubt.