"In Talent, Oregon - seven miles north of the Ashland stages where swords clash, lovers spar and monarchs fall - tens of thousands of costumes line rolling racks inside a large warehouse on Talent Avenue. They are not relics. They are working garments, each one tagged, photographed, barcoded and ready to be called back into action. This is Oregon Shakespeare Festival Costume Rentals, an operation that functions less like a warehouse and more like a living archive."
"Saturday Night Live is one of Costume Rentals' high-profile clients, contacting OSF regularly for specific period pieces. One particularly notable rental was a gown from OSF's production of Pride and Prejudice that was worn on SNL by Al Pacino. A backstage fire in the original Elizabethan Theatre in 1940 destroyed nearly all of the company's costumes and some of the stage. The show went on, with performers wearing modern clothing for subsequent performances while seamstresses worked to create replacement costumes."
A warehouse in Talent, Oregon stores tens of thousands of costumes on rolling racks, each tagged, photographed, and barcoded for reuse. Oregon Shakespeare Festival Costume Rentals operates as a living archive, preserving garments from different eras and productions for theaters, universities, film and television. High-profile clients include Saturday Night Live, which has borrowed period pieces, including a Pride and Prejudice gown later worn by Al Pacino. Historical losses from a 1940 backstage fire motivated purpose-built storage and professional inventory systems. Organized facilities, careful handling, and an ethos of reuse keep costumes preserved and available long after original productions end.
Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
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