Glorious! -- Days 10-15: The Sets & Costumes Come to Life

While the actors and director are hard at work in the rehearsal hall, there's a flurry of activity throughout the the theatre as production staff focus their considerable talents on bringing the beautiful set and costume designs to glorious life.

Brian Perchaluk's elegant and simple design called for an actual proscenium (that framed opening you see in a more traditional, concert hall-style theatre) to be built on PTE's more untraditional thrust-style stage. Yards and yards of gauzy fabric became curtains, and red curtains from a PTE production of My Fair Lady more than 10 years ago were repurposed (theatre people never throw anything out!).

Florence Foster Jenkins was famous for, among other things, creating her own outlandish costumes, so costume designer Tamara Kucheran had some big shoes to fill. In addition to a shepardess costume that will have the audience chortling, the very talented wardrobe staff have recreated the actual cream satin dress that Florence wore for her final concert - complete with angel wings. It's been very entertaining to see the wings journey back and forth from the shop (where the framework and mechanics are created) to the wardrobe department, where the gauzy "feathers" are applied. Several times a day, they flutter through the main office, on a seemingly never-ending loop towards perfection.

Although it sometimes seems like chaos, every detail and timeline is controlled so that by the time the actors start rehearsing on stage, everything is ready for them -- although there are always details that are perfected right through to opening night.