Taking stock: Revaluing theatre’s costume stores

Abstract

Hanging on racks and squeezed into shelves, past performances’ ghosts are visible in the costumes left behind. The costumes held in stock by most theatre companies are material memories of previous productions. They hold traces of the performance, have eased and shaped to fit performers’ bodies over weeks or months of daily wear, have been stressed by a consistent action or absorbed stains from ‘blood’ despite diligent washing. These traces, and the costumes themselves, provide a history of the performance that contradicts the routine complaint of theatre as an ephemeral medium. However, despite, or perhaps, because of these traces, costume stock is often regarded with misgivings. A pejorative attitude to stock costume reflects a significant change in its valuing over the last two centuries, one that does not reflect its active role in producing new works. This article contrasts costume stock’s position in the theatrical imagination with the many and often overlapping roles it plays in the costume workshop, rehearsal room and onstage to develop a taxonomy of costume stock use. It argues for a revaluation of costume stores as a creative tool in theatrical design and performance making.