Moseley Hall is one of several historical buildings located in the courtyard square where the University first got its start in 1910.

Within Moseley Hall, through one of its frontal side doors and down a small flight of stairs, a modest brown door stands closed. A door exactly like every other, but through it lies the underappreciated work of the University’s Costume Department.

Margaret McCubbin, associate coordinator and costume designer, has worked in the costume department for 25 years. Although the majority of the wall space is covered with shelving units, fabric or spools of thread and the floor space is cramped with costumes, cutting tables and work benches, she works adroitly and with ease in preparation for the upcoming play in early December, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ – the last play of the year.

‘Everything we do is handmade,’ McCubbin said. ‘We have myself and several other members of the designing faculty. We have some seniors helping us with the costumes as well as beginners who haven’t completed the technical aspect of their curriculum yet. These students sew on all the buttons and hem all of the costumes.’

However, besides the genuine work of the various workers within the shop, a lot of time and effort has to be sacrificed in order for the costumes to be finished on time.

For the most part, McCubbin works a little bit of every day in the workshop. Depending on the show, she will work the better part of every day as well as weekends.

For their current show, McCubbin suspects that while others get to go home, she will have to stay back and work through Thanksgiving break.

‘But if you’re going to get the shows done you kind of have to do these things sometimes,’ McCubbin said. ‘It’s not fun but it’s life. You get used to it. And in the end it’s always worth it.’

But besides putting in the man hours, working with less than adequate shop space and sacrificing free time, as well as family time, Laurel Damon, costume shop supervisor for 13 years, said she and the other faculty members work hard to prepare their aspiring theater majors with as many means as possible.

‘We have work study, scholarships, co-ops, grant and aides,’ Damon. said. ‘We work with a lot of students from the Education and Family Consumer Science departments. We have internships and graduate students. We work with students still in costume construction classes and other students as well. And that pretty much covers our work force.’

Tory Blumenshine, sophomore, apparel merchandising major and first year shop worker, admits that she has a lot to learn.

‘I’ve sewn before,’ Blumenshine said. ‘But there are so many different techniques to learn. I’ve already learned more than I have during the four years of sewing I took in high school and I’ve only worked here a month or two.’

Students, like Blumenshine are bombarded with experience while working in the shop, Damon said. She said some students may complain while they are still at the University, but they often call her years after graduation, thanking her for all of the experience, because everything they have learned, they now have to apply to their professions.

‘During plays like the Christmas Carol or the opera, all the mannequins will be full, the racks will be full, there is no place to walk.’ Damon said. ‘But you deal with it because you have to get the job done and this is what the students need. They need to be exposed to this. It’s hard but even if they don’t realize how important it is now, they will someday, and that is the most important role we play.’

The construction for the Wolfe Center for the Arts has finally broken ground. McCubbin said the costume faculty’s collective ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ attitude has finally found reason for pause and all members are anxiously anticipating the move.

Although anxious, McCubbin remembers a time when the cramped and crowded atmosphere of their workshop turned to serious and worrisome.

‘Our facilities are in such bad shape that when the architect and consultant for the Wolfe Center walked in, he took a look around and said that he’s seen third world countries with better facilities. He was being realistic with us saying that this is just abysmal. And it is,’ McCubbin said.

She said each facility that has been accredited is in danger of losing that accreditation if their facilities are compromised due to budget cuts, or if they were inadequate to begin with. She said she, her colleagues and her students will withstand the insufficient amount of space for however long they have to, but to lose their accreditation due to their work space would be a realistic consequence, but a tragedy of the utmost proportions.

Darin Kerr, 37, Ph.D. student, has been performing on stage for the University for three years. For the upcoming play, Kerr will be transformed into a woman in order to play Lady Bracknell. He has had to make this type of transformation before, although not to this caliber, over five times, and each one of those times has been nothing but good experiences. He said although most production staff goes underappreciated, one cannot not help but admire the work and dedication of the costume department faculty.

‘Any actor worth his or her salt has a boundless appreciation for the amount of art and craft and hard work that goes into the technical work that supports and enhances what the actor does,’ Kerr said. ‘The costume faculty deserves accolades not only for their outstanding artistic work, but also for the patience they exhibit with actors, who aren’t always the most punctual of creatures.”