My mom used to tell a story of me at age 3 watching television, and when she asked me what I was doing I said, “I’m studying to be an actress.” Like many in the theatre world I started out on stage before finding my true love and passion offstage, in the costume shop. After graduating with my MFA in Acting/Directing, I taught college in Missouri for 5 years. At that time, 2008, one of my former students suggested me for the opening of Assistant Costume Shop Manager at The Rev. In 2009 I moved to Auburn to work as the Costume Shop Manager, working on costumes for the summer season & the Rev On Tour season.

Costumes are such an important way to help tell the story the director wants to tell. Every garment or accessory that appears onstage does so because it was a thought out choice for THAT character to be wearing THAT item at THAT precise time in the show. In addition to finding/designing/building the right things for characters to be wearing, you also have to worry about period accuracy, composition of all costumes on stage in relation to each other and the set, and you must think about which items need to be changed quickly so you can plan accordingly.

That summer staff consists of myself, an assistant shop manager, a cutter/draper (the person who patterns and cuts all of the pieces we will be building) and two stitchers. I also oversee the Wardrobe department that is made up of a wardrobe supervisor, a dresser and two production assistant wardrobe crew members. The job of the wardrobe crew is to make sure all actors look like we need them to; they plan and assist in all quick changes made, keep costumes laundered and in good shape, and they interact with the actors on a daily basis, solving problems. There is also the hair/makeup department. This consists of the designer and a wig assistant. The designer designs and styles all the wigs in the show (we typically wig all the women in a summer production) and the makeup. The wig assistant will “run” the shows—putting wigs on all the actors, maintaining the styles, and making sure all makeup is staying accurate to the designer’s vision.

The summer season is filled with tons of meetings and fittings. From the time the actors arrive to opening night we have two weeks. Depending on the size of the show, the shop will be responsible for anywhere from 12-200 costumes. We will have first fittings of the entire cast Thursday, Friday and Saturday—the first three days of rehearsal. Usually all fittings are finished by the following Friday (9 days after actor arrival; 8 work days). We then move into technical rehearsals where the tech elements are mixed in with the performance. Costumes are added either Monday evening or Tuesday morning, the show opens Wednesday… And then we do it all over again.

Ashley has more than 15 years of professional wardrobe experience. She joined The Rev as Wardrobe Supervisor in 2014. Since then, she has worked on more than 25 productions at The Rev Theatre Company. Prior to that, she traveled as the wardrobe supervisor for five national tours. Ashley has worked in regional theatre, summer stock, ballet, opera, Irish dance, theme park, and children’s theatre, musical theatre, and plays.

Favorite projects include Wardrobe Supervisor for the North American premiere of From Here to Eternity a new musical from Tim Rice at The Rev, Riverdance North American Tour, Elf the Musical at Madison Square Garden, Disgraced and The Hound of the Baskervilles at Virginia Stage Company, and designing the costumes for Rockin’ Road to Dublin touring Irish Dance/Music company.