COSTUMER
#2101
General Characteristics:
A Costumer is responsible for researching, designing and constructing costumes, maintaining stock of costumes and borrowing or buying costumes and related accessories for theatrical and other stage productions; does related work as required. work requires a thorough knowledge of clothing and theatre history, creativity and artistic ability to design costumes. Work requires the ability to sew and tailor costumes. Work requires frequent contact with vendors or other organizations to borrow or lend costumes and with members of the production team, especially the director. Positions require the ability to work irregular hours, evenings and weekends.
Examples of Work:
Designs costumes after reading scripts, doing necessary historical or background research and consultation with production director and designer; draws designs for director's approval.
Constructs costumes by measuring the actor, drafting a pattern, fitting the actor, shopping for fabric, cutting the costume, sewing and tailoring the costume to fit; applies fasteners and details to costumes.
Maintains College costume stock; assists College and other groups with costume selection; checks out costumes; receives costumes and returns them to stock; buys, borrows or pulls from stock ready-made costumes; returns cleaned costumes.
Manages the costume shop; maintains inventory of equipment and supplies; recruits, supervises and trains student assistants who may have varied levels of sewing skills.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Knowledge of fabrics and other costuming and accessory materials; knowledge of and skill in the operation of sewing machines and other costuming tools; knowledge of and skill in the use of dyes to produce a variety of color combinations required by the production; knowledge of and skill in training and monitoring performance of students and volunteers; ability to plan work assignments and set priorities; ability to learn local sources of costumes and accessories; ability to design, cut and sew costumes and accessories based on pictures or using imagination and creativity; ability to produce results under tight deadlines; ability to work effectively with other artists on the production team; ability to tailor costumes to fit and to repair costumes; ability to perform research on designs of costumes for particular historical periods and roles; ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing; ability to draw and paint costume ideas; ability to maintain inventories accurately and to organize materials for easy access; ability to organize and schedule work and meet deadlines; ability to work within a budget; ability to work irregular hours, evenings and weekends; ability to work safely.
Supervision:
Reports to and works under the general supervision of the Arts Division Chair. Costume design and construction are performed independently based on previous training and experience. Work performance is reviewed by talking to other members of production teams, visual appearance of actors in costumes and critics' review of costumes.
This position is responsible to assign tasks, provide priorities, train and monitor the work of student assistants and volunteers.
Minimum Qualifications:
A bachelor's degree in theatre arts or a related field is required.
Three years of experience in theatrical costuming is required.
Equivalent combination of training and experience will be considered qualifying.
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