RSC’s Revamped Costume Workshop Opens To The Public

The redeveloped costume workshop of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon is set to open its doors to the public in 2022.

The Coventry Telegraph reports that the restored Grade II listed buildings now sit along newly created spaces that are capable of hosting the costume workshops 30-strong team, the largest costume-making department of any British theatre.

The revamped workshop sits opposite the Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres on the site of the 1887 Memorial Theatre Scene Dock, which is now the new entrance to the building. The redesign offers more space and light, and will now be able to offer training and apprenticeships to the local community.

Members of the public will be allowed to join guided tours for the first time from 2022, to see the team’s specialist skills, which include millinery, jewellery, dyeing, costume painting, costume props and footwear.

During the restoration and redevelopment works, the entire costume workshop was required to relocate for two years, meaning packing up and moving 36 mannequins, 3,500 pairs of shoes, more than 1,710 reels of thread, 126 paintbrushes, 45 sewing machines and more.

RSC artistic director Gregory Doran said: “Thank you to all who have supported the restoration and redevelopment of our costume workshop.

“The team create amazing costumes every year but [they] were doing so in conditions that were not fit for purpose. Costumes are integral to an actor’s performance and to them becoming the character they are to play.

He added that the workshop makes, repairs and recycles hundreds of costume pieces each year, which are subsequently seen by audiences all around the world.

“Costumes have been made on this site continuously since at least the 1940s, and the workshop now has the costume-making facilities to secure the legacy of our costume-making skills and the heritage buildings that house them,” he said.

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