How to Make Music Man Costumes for Middle School

Staging and costumes are an important part of any production.

Although sometimes overlooked, costume design and staging can be as important to the success of a theatrical production as the acting, even in amateur and student plays. Fortunately, and especially in the case of productions like "The Music Man" that do not require especially elaborate costumes and are set in the not-so-distant past, a few thoughtful details can go a long way to creating a high-quality and believable production. If you are going for historical legitimacy rather than more creative stagings, many of the costumes you will need are already available within students' wardrobes, and you only need to add a few details for period dress.

Things You'll Need

• Long dresses
• Business suits
• Hats
• Marching band props and musical instruments
• Sheriff's uniform
• Select period accents

Instructions

The Cast

1. Define the exact number of cast members (including extras and secondary characters) to determine the number of students who will require a costume.

2. Separate students in thematic groups to simplify organization. In the case of "The Music Man," simple categories such as "Business Men" and "Town Women" will cover most of your actors.

3. Assess the willingness of students and parents to allow their clothing to be used in the production. While some parents or students may object, fearing ripped or dirty clothing, having students use some of their own clothes will lower production costs and save you time in tailoring.

The Women

1. Prepare an inventory of how many girls in the production have long dresses that, with minor alterations, could be made to look like period dress. Generally you are looking for long, simple and modest dresses that would be worn in a small town in 1912. Characters like the Pickalittle Ladies and Marian, the librarian, can use generic dresses in varying colors.

2. Ask all the female actors if they can borrow such a dress if they don't already own one and if they are comfortable using it during the production. If any of the cast members has multiple dresses that meet this description, ask them if they are willing to lend a dress to a classmate.

3. Look for the remaining dresses at a local used clothing store. Thrift stores can be inexpensive solutions for costumes and, if necessary, you can alter the dresses or lengthen them by fastening pieces of fabric with stitching or pins. The advantage of a play set in a small mid-western town in the beginning of the twentieth century is that many of the original characters would have had home-made clothing.

4. Add period accents that students can find in their home or that are already in the school drama department's costumes. Simple items such as hand mirrors and veils can add a lot of historical legitimacy with relatively little work.

   Be sure to choose items that are not easily breakable or valuable unless you can guarantee their safety.

The Men

1. Ask the male actors how many of them own suits or dress clothing and are willing to use them during the production. As with the women, many of the male characters are salesmen or local businessmen, so the costumes can easily be re-created with modern formal dress and a few alterations.

2. Look in a local used clothing store for the remaining suits.

3. Add small accents to the men's costume of dress pants and shirts, such as vests, bow ties, or hats to add historical legitimacy. Not all characters need to have every costume detail, but a few distributed among the cast will make the whole group look believable. Pay special attention to the adult businessmen characters who would most likely have a more complete wardrobe.

Special Characters

1. Purchase used clothing that you can dirty to make a costume for Tommy, the character from the "wrong side of town."

2. Concentrate your use of period accents such as hats, handkerchiefs and veils on the mayor and his wife, the characters usually depicted in the finest dress.

3. Dress the sheriff in a solid color and add a policeman's hat or a simple star cut out of tin or scrap metal.

4. Decorate the stage with marching band accessories and instruments, which should be available in a middle school and will be necessary in certain scenes.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember that staging, especially in a middle school production, does not require that every costume be perfect, but that the combination of all the characters on stage at any given point conveys a consistent message.

• Be sure that students can move comfortably in their costumes and that they are not likely to trip or fall while onstage.

• Especially when working with children of middle school age, try to be as sensitive as possible to potential body-image issues among the students when discussing costumes.

References

• Loch Raven High School: The Music Man
• The Costumers Manifesto

Resources

• IMDB: The Music Man, Cast