For more complex plays and musicals, with numerous costume changes, the challenge of costume designers takes on a logistical angle. Sometimes the activity backstage is as choreographed as the events on stage, as actors are sometimes yanked out of one costume and stuffed into another during their short break off stage. In 80 seconds we took 18 actors out of casual dance wear and changed them into performing attire, complete with change of shoes and undergarments. We had nine or ten dressers and you were putting the left shoe on one person while zipping up someone else. We rehearsed this a lot.
Costume designers have a reputation for scrounging, it sort of goes with the territory.
The first step in outfitting actors for a play is to sift through the costume room on the third floor of the Old Town Playhouse. They dig through racks of dresses and suits, boxes of everything from shoes to hats to dresses to ties to find what appropriate pieces for era of the play. If there are still holes in their costuming, the designers will then scour thrift shops and second-hand stores looking for appropriate pieces. Thrift store shopping and a lot of sewing are the saving graces of costume designers. We're really lucky at the playhouse to have a nice costume shop.