Calling all costume buffs - The Northcott needs you!
Exeter's Northcott Theatre has revealed to The Exeter Daily that it has a very exciting opportunity coming up for a small but dedicated group of volunteers in the New Year.
Beth de Tisi, Wardrobe Manager at the Northcott, says: "We have this amazing resource that we are no longer able to utilise to full advantage since we are currently not putting on our own productions at The Northcott."
Beth, who worked at The Northcott for 10 years, has a terrific sense of what costumes are in the department already. However, in order to make the stock available to a host of outside agencies, from film productions to local theatre groups, they need to catalogue each of the 2,000-plus pieces in the theatre's wardrobe collection, which is no mean feat.
I was shown around the three rooms treasure troves that house the theatre's wardrobe collection and there are boxes upon boxes of every conceivable item of costume and associated accessories, from buttons to beads to belts to braces. There's also a goose, a panda, a cow and a dragon, but even if they don't have exactly what people are looking for, Beth tells me she can put something together with her extensive knowledge and expertise.
The pieces also include donated original items dating back to the 1870s as well as costumes and pantomime animals which have been made in the wardrobe department since the theatre opened in 1967.
Having already started transferring the costumes - previously stored in another building in the city - into a new wardrobe store sited at the theatre, there is still plenty of photographing and measuring to be done to develop a comprehensive catalogue. This will eventually be able to be viewed on the Exeter Northcott Theatre website.
"This will make the collection really accessible," says Beth.
The aim is to make the wardrobe stock an easily accessible resource that can be hired to local theatre groups and education establishments as well as professionals within the industry.
The job of photographing, measuring and cataloguing all the costumes is likely to take years to complete and the theatre is appealing for volunteers to help with the project.
"It's a massive task," says Beth. "It's only within the last six weeks that all the costumes have been put onto hangers. They were brought to the theatre from another building and for a while they were on a heap on the floor. At times, the job has seemed insurmountable.
"We have an eclectic mix of good quality costumes which are a part of the theatre's history.
"Ideally, volunteers should have a passion for historical costume and an understanding of garment construction as well as some data collection skills.
"Each item has to be comprehensively measured and sized," says Beth. "Everything has to be dated and assigned to a period and placed on a model and photographed. So it's quite a painstaking and detailed task."
If you can spare a few hours a week to assist with the cataloguing project, please contact Beth De Tisi via email at e.de-tisi@exeter.ac.uk
