Peggy! Finally my own ballet programme!
Well, kind of …
I’ve been looking forward to this programme all year. It has just come in from the store and Marsia, Jessie and I unpacked it today. Personally I love a man in a ballet jacket and pair of tights, and this programme is all of that. For me, ballet is all about bling and the men in bling. I pulled out pink velvet jackets with silver bows, green waistcoats with peplums, and cream puff-sleeved shirts to go with them, and got very excited. Most of these costumes are from another era, a time when ballet looked like ballet and, well, people were generally much smaller back then. These days my boys are men and they’re built like men. Think ‘couture for hard yakka’. So when I pulled out beautiful silver brocade (dyed purple) jackets covered with silver trim my eyes lit up and I thought: we’ll get to remake that!
I also get to see these jackets on bodies in a different setting; sometimes over rehearsal clothes, sometimes with jeans. It can get a little Adam Ant; a little bit glam-punk; a little Gaultier.
The Costume department has just had its first really big clean up in six months. With the two big ballets (The Silver Rose and Coppélia) both up and finally out of the workroom, there has been a short space of time for all the storage shelves to be repacked. There are decades of collected trim (some of the original Coppélia trims and fabrics were still there from 30 years ago, faithfully waiting to be used again) along with the stock of trims we use regularly. The fabric stock room has been reorganised and refiled. That original silver brocade (yet to be dyed purple) has been found and is waiting its turn in the spotlight.
All that’s needed now to recreate these bibs and bobs is a bit of love. Soon the posters for Peggy! go up and … ta-da … my name up in lights!
Peggy! plays in Melbourne 25 June to 5 July
Would love to see detailed photos of the re-creation process.