Sewing for Mary Poppins

Above you can see the beautiful Alabama Shakespeare Festival Theatre, If you ever have the chance, be sure to attend a production there.  During one week of the summer I had a great opportunity to work on the Mary Poppins production. (The play ended up being so popular the running time was extended 2 times)

I was nervous about leaving my family for a week to go and work at a place I had only seen once and with people I knew nothing about. Jeffery Todhunter, head of production, had invited me to come and work with them and this excitement soon overcame the initial nerves. The first striking thing about the space is the large-ness of it. It is absolutely HUGE. There is a loft that contains the less used props and I was able to climb up there to get a couple photos.

The first day I even got to attend a staff meeting where everyone working on the project got together, introduced themselves, and talked about the production. That was simply incredible. Later in the week I even got to talk with some of the actors at their fittings. Everyone was very busy with their jobs and I was often left without anything to do. However, I learned a good bit during the week. One of the coolest things was make boot harnesses from scratch. I cut the leather from a raw hide, stained it, sealed the edges, punched holes, and added buckles. Here is the finished product:

Other things I did included dyeing a shawl, ironing fabric, assisting in fittings, painting a wig, organizing fabric, making flower bunches, sizing dresses and shirts, and making fabric covered buttons which ended up on Jane Bank's coat.

When I didn't have a job to do, I took pictures of the amazing space. There is a room for making wigs.

A special space for fringe

 

A wide variety of belts

                                            A huge selection of well, I'm not sure what.

The outside of the theater is beautiful as well and I had lunch in the garden or near the river.

 

Beautiful. Anyway, it was a very interesting experience and I met some very talented people. Later the family and I went to the production and it was so cool to see all the hard work on stage.

I would love to work on another production in the future!

~Rachel