Boheme, Rigoletto and Rakes Progress Costumes off to Goodwill

This past weekend was kind of emotional for me and our staff. After years of accumulating some of the most gorgeous costumes -- all designed and built by our fabulous team -- we had to make room in storage for a future. The simple fact is, our offices, rehearsal and shop spaces are all just crowded to maximum capacity.

So on Saturday 3 members of our costume shop loaded up the oldest costumes we had in stock -- from the first production of La Boheme we did when I first started with the company, plus Rigoletto and Stravinski's Rake's Progress. They loaded the costumes into a van and drove them down to the local Goodwill.

It was bittersweet though. I had to kind of chuckle at the thought that some sunny afternoon I might walk through one of our local parks and stumble upon Mimi, Gilda or Baba the Turk fishing for empties out of a trash can. It feels good to give something back but it is sad to have to let so many fond memories go. But I suppose these gorgeous clothes -- most of them perfectly contemporary and wearable today -- were just going to waste sitting in locked storage. I hope they'll be brightening a few lives as they once did mine.

I wonder if anyone else has had the sad task of giving away a whole shopfull of costumes in one fell swoop. Strangely sad and yet sort of makes me proud at the same time. Glad to have been able to do those great shows. You know?