Tommy costume help!

[mrs felciano]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 5:11pm

Hi all. I'm in a production of Tommy and we open in less than a month. Our costume person is in a bit of a panic because she is really behind on costumes and is short on ideas. I was wondering if any of you were in a production of Tommy that you could perhaps send me pictures from your production? Or if anyone has a dvd of a production they were in that would be SUPER helpful. I could cover the cost of shipping if you are willing to make me a copy. Thanks guys!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 5:19pm

umm... that would illegal to blatantly copy costume ideas from other productions and especially illegal to be asking for help to do so on a public message board. your costumer should know that.

on that note there's a wonderful coffee table book for the Broadway production with beautiful full color production photos and the like that can be purchased used on amazing for pretty cheap.

[mrs felciano]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 5:24pm

She doesn't want to copy their costumes. She's never seen the show before and has only seen a few pictures. So she just wanted inspiration.

[Neverandy]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 5:31pm

I don't know if anything asked for would be "Illegal". The costumer is just looking for some ideas.
How is looking at the coffee table book any less illegal than looking at pictures?
Don't try and scare people who are just looking for help.

[mrs felciano]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 5:43pm

Thank you neverandy! :)

[rf12792]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 6:01pm

"Illegal" is a bit strong--people copy from other productions all the time. That said, as a professional designer, I wouldn't be thrilled to learn that somebody had copied my work without giving proper credit.

As far as reference materials go, if your costume designer can make it to New York, the Library at Lincoln Center is a great resource. They might also try looking to art and photography books for inspiration. Photos/video of the show you're working on aren't always the best way to go about designing anyway--I always wait until after my show has opened to check out the "competition" :)

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 7:35pm

Illegal is not a strong word in this case. The poster is asking for people who've performed in Tommy before to send pictures of their costumers designs seemingly without their consent in order for their costumer to be "inspired". Additionally they are asking for DVDs of said productions which would be highly illegal in the first place since it is not legal for community theatres to film their productions without a video license and even then is only supposed to be used for archival purposes for use by the theatre company. Not desperate costume designers.