Miracles Made Here Daily—The SCR Costume Shop

The miracles don’t happen overnight. It just seems like they do when you see them on stage. Just how do those immaculate, artful costumes go from designer drawing to bespoke couture?

Go into SCR’s basement and the first place you’ll see is the SCR Costume Shop, where the artful miracles you see you on the stage come to life—often in mind-bending time. They are born in the mind of a costume designer, but the SCR Costume Shop is where they’re raised.

How do these costumes come to life?

SCR’s Costume Shop Manager Amy Hutto said the process starts with a production meeting with the designer two months before the show’s first rehearsal. Once they get the idea of what’s needed fabric-wise, Hutto and her staff will survey their extensive fabric inventory to see what’s needed. That done, Hutto, the designer or design assistant will head to L.A.’s Garment District to fill in any gaps.

On the first day of rehearsals, Hutto and her team begin fitting the actors. Hutto expedited the process by reaching out to the actors and getting their sizes. They start with mock-up fittings where a custom pattern cut from muslin fabric is tailored to the actor’s body.

After the actors’ measurements are taken and the fittings complete, Hutto and her team begin making the costumes. They have roughly two weeks to complete the process before Tech Week—the week before previews begin, where costumes, sets, lights, sound and projections are woven into the production for the first time.

“We will produce a show in three weeks and it doesn’t matter if it’s eight costumes or 38 costumes. We have three weeks,” said Hutto, who has been at SCR 27 years and overseen costuming for nearly 400 shows and numerous SCR Galas. “I have a very small permanent staff: me, a cutter/draper and a generalist who can do a little bit of everything. If we need more help, the only thing I can do is hire more people, since we can’t have more weeks and we can’t have more hours in a day.”

Those people Hutto hires are called “overhires”—temporary hired guns brought in to help with specific projects. A typical show with a medium-sized cast needing 30-40 costumes necessitates six to eight overhires. For Hollowlands by Howard Korder, Hutto had 22 people working on what she called “an epic show.” It was so epic that Hutto had some of her artisans working in the hallway, because there wasn’t enough room in the Costume Shop.

Growing up in Georgia, Hutto thought she’d be a high school English teacher, so you can imagine the yarns she can spin about various shows. On Much Ado About Nothing, Hutto didn’t have enough overhires, so she would send everyone else home and cut ballgowns until 9 p.m.—just so her crew of stitchers could have something to sew when they arrived the next morning.

In Korder’s 2010 world premiere of In A Garden, actors Mark Harelick and Matt Letscher had to have seven full-suited costumes apiece, with wardrobe changes coming 25 seconds apart. Enter the “jump suit:” a shirt, tie and pants all rigged together. Pull one off and put another one on—in 20 seconds.

“Mark was very skeptical that this was going to work. Then, after we showed him, he said, ‘I want all my clothes to be like this,’” Hutto said. “That was the show where we got the formula down. Now, when we say we have to jump-suit this, everyone in the shop knows what it means.”

Through the entire process, Hutto is the hub. She is the center of communication between the designers, director and her staff—while keeping the production manager apprised of every step in the process. She oversees fittings, passes on notes and “tries to keep the actors happy.” By the time a show opens, Hutto is usually working on the next show.

“Anything you do on a building as a project manager, we’re doing the same thing with clothes,” she said.

And through that process, the miracles and stories blend into indelible, fond images of the people Hutto and her staff have worked with over the years. She admits to being “personally star-struck” working with Harry Groaner. After all, Hutto confessed she loves a good song-and-dance man.

“I married one,” she said.

“This is all about the people I’ve gotten to work with. I worked with Linda Gehringer on 22 shows together. She’s one of the fabulous people I’ve worked with over the years,” she said. “Fabulous people like Doug Sills, our Benedict on Much Ado About Nothing, and Nike Doukas.

“I’ve gotten to work with some great actors over the years as well as great designers like Angela Calin, who started the same year as I did. She has such a different take on designs with her European training and background. Everything’s going to be different and that’s a credit to the people I’ve gotten to work with. Where else would I get the opportunity to welcome Richard Greenberg and Amy Freed into the Costume Shop?  You don’t get that opportunity just anywhere.”