HALF LIFE OF MARIE CURIE

Written by Lauren gunderson
directed by Sarah Shepard

During my time apprenticing for Theatre SilCo (formerly Lake Dilon Theatre), I was working primarily as a stitcher and costume maintenance runner. So in the mornings I would take care of the costumes make sure what was washed the night before gets to properly dry, and if anything needed fixed I would fix it. In the afternoons I would primarily be working on our next production. At the time when I would do maintinance for Head Over Heels (written by James Magruder and Jeff Whitty), I would be doing construction for Half Life of Marie Curie.

From the start of construction one of my main tasks was working on the dress for Hertha. which started from tracing and expanding the patterns, to then building the mock-up for a fitting. Then from fitting to editing the pattern once more to another fitting, and finally the final costume.

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Theatre SilCo

Mock-up and Pattern

We started with a simplicity pattern for a tulip skirt dress, and to meet the needs of what the dress needed to do, we altered it to work for the quick changes that would need to be done in it.

The quick rigging was done by sewing the center back seam, instead of keeping it to zip up in the back. As such the dress was left with the front right panel overlapping on the placket. We extended the placket, and the waist band to compensate for the overlap modestly. We also added to the right skirt panel so that it would wrap further towards the princess seam.

Works in progress

After a trip to Denver (because there were no fabric stores in summit county), we began the construction of both dresses, and Hertha’s being my project. It started to shape up following the closing of Head Over Heels.

The details I’m the most proud of would be the chevrons that were formed by the lines of the skirt and the waistband. This was achieved by cutting both pieces of the skirt waistband separately rather than through two layers of fabric. And the added effect it left the lines in the front vertical

When we got the dress together and into the final fitting then came the quick rigging, and ornamentation with the lace on the collar and the cuffs. Which was hand stitched with thread we perfectly color matched with the that of the jasmine flower lace. A lot of work went into this dress, and I was proud to hear the actress wanted to buy it from the theatre after the show. Especially seeing how well she played the part of Hertha Ayrton. With that let’s go into the final gallery.