Inside A.C.T.

By Elspeth Sweatman Ever wondered how A.C.T.’s costume and wardrobe departments maintain over 200 costumes during the course of A Christmas Carol ? We met up with Costume Director Jessie Amoroso for an inside look into the life of a Carol costume. A rack of A Christmas Carol costumes. Photo by Elspeth Sweatman. What is the path of a costume like during the run of the show? Everything is labeled, down to the nth degree: every sock, shoe, glove, and bonnet. Everything is also listed on a dressing list, that shows where every costume should be at any given moment, whether it’s preset, put in a dressing room, taken off onstage, taken off stage right or stage left, or put in a basket to go back to a dressing room or down to be cleaned. It also lists the costumes that are taken off stage right but need to be carried over to stage left so that the actor can put it back on later in the show. The actors who wear the big 1860s hoop skirts change out of them and become a miner or gang ...

By Elspeth Sweatman Making a new dress for 2016 production  of A Christmas Carol . Photo by Elspeth Sweatman. For ten months of every year, A.C.T.’s A Christmas Carol costumes are hidden away in the costume shop: all 200-plus costumes, including thousands of shoes. It is Costume Director Jessie Amoroso’s job to guide his team through the month-long sprint to get this Bay Area holiday classic onto the Geary stage once more. We caught up with him between costume fittings to get a glimpse into the preparations for this A.C.T. staple. When does the process for Carol start here in The Costume Shop? We usually have about four or five weeks once it’s cast to fit everyone and get everything ready. That’s at least fifty hours of fittings over two weeks. Do you create any of the costumes from scratch each year? We usually create one or two new pieces. This year we’re making two new dresses, which are always fun to make. Are the costumes for our two Scrooges the same? Ever...

A Very Real Woman An Interview with Testament Costume Designer Jessie Amoroso By Adam Odsess-Rubin Costume designer Jessie Amoroso shares some of the images that inspired his design. Fall is always a busy season in A.C.T.’s costume shop: the staff creates costumes for all Master of Fine Arts Program, Young Conservatory, and mainstage shows, in addition to renting costumes to people looking for special Halloween outfits. That doesn’t stop A.C.T. Costume Shop Manager Jessie Amoroso, who is the costume designer for Testament , from investing himself in the design process of the one-woman show. Amoroso gave us a look into the complex process of designing a costume for one of the most iconic women in history. What research did you do for Testament ? Mary is such a prominent figure that has been written about for centuries, so there is quite a bit out there to digest. Luckily, we have Michael Paller, who did an amazing job with the dramaturgy. But research starts with the sc...