The Nutcracker’s New Clothes - Exclusive Extras!
Charles Heightchew, Costume and Wardrobe Manager at the Boston Ballet shows off a mouse costume head from the Boston Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker.
See the full, exclusive story on the Boston Ballet Nutcracker costumes at www.TheBostonFashionista.com
Fun extras:
-There are eleven full time staff on the Boston Ballet costume team, with four to five interns. The staff have varied backgrounds. Some are former dancers, others have degrees as varied as art history, technical theater, textiles, fashion and even home economics! Interns primarily come from fashion schools, but also theater and technical theater programs. Says Charles Heightchew, Costume and Wardrobe Manager, “We have a hard job - you always want costumes to be better, and you have somewhat limited resources (though we are very lucky at the Ballet!). But the company has faith in us; they want to produce great costumes…they want to create beautiful things.”
-The new costumes will be made somewhat in house - with some outside help - the costume team still has their regular work to do. (Insert a slew of Project Runway jokes here: “Your challenge this week is to produce an entire show in two days. Make it work! Don’t forget to thoughtfully use the accessory wall!”) Retired costumes will be kindly cleaned and placed into storage.
-Heightchew says, “It will be sad to see these costumes retire, but I am excited to see the new design. It will be elegant and beautiful and it will wonderful for Boston to have a production that is new and fresh, and made for the Opera House - which is now our home - it will be the production for this generation.”
-He also states, “I love when the curtain opens up on Opening Night. It’s not the audience’s response to the costumes. It’s just that, as non-dancers, this is a way that we get to express ourselves within that form. The production has coalesced into this thing that the audience really loves. It’s that you get to participate in this art, that, as a non-dancer, you couldn’t do.”
-P.S. Check out Mr. Heightchew on “One Guest” here - it’s a great interview about how how he got started, the ins and outs of costume design and other interesting topics!
Workroom in the Boston Ballet costume department.
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