Theater’s costume sale could dress up your wardrobe
Published 10:44 pm Saturday, August 21, 2010
EVERETT — A fur-trimmed coat, red platform shoes, a wedding dress, a fake pregnant belly and hats — lots of hats.
Those are just a few of the garments and accessories the Historic Everett Theatre plans to sell this weekend.
Imagine rummaging through Great Aunt Ethel’s steamer trunk and you’ll get an idea of the items on sale.
In the last 15 years the theater has accumulated dozens and dozens of costumes that range from suit-and-tie mundane to Rocky Horror Picture Show sequins and feathers.
Some of the clothes are vintage items probably pulled from some Everett old timer’s closet. Others are clearly sewn together from this and that for some now unknown role.
“It’s kind of like getting into mom’s closet,” said Kathee Sweek, the box office and contracts manager at the theater.
The costumes sat in a storage room in an apartment down the street until volunteers suggested the theater could save on rent by holding a yard sale.
Those volunteers, Rebecca Fulford-Foster and Hilary Haynes, spent three straight days combing through boxes and shuttling the costumes to the theater in a Kia Spectra.
“We found some things we thought were cool,” Fulford-Foster said.
The box office manager isn’t sure who would wear many of these clothes, although she thought the ample collections of vests and suit jackets might work for a fashion-adventurous somebody. Or maybe a savvy mom might stock her preschooler’s closet with dress-up items.
The racks of clothes are a sad reminder that the New Everett Theatre group isn’t putting on in-house productions this season.
The nonprofit, run mainly by volunteers, struggled to keep up with maintenance of the 108-year-old building.
It’s now renting the building for other performance groups, including the Northwest Savoyards, a musical theater company. Those groups bring their own costumes.
New Everett Theatre plans to eventually stage its own performances again, Sweek said.
Everything costs $10 or less. Anything left over will probably go to the Everett Gospel Mission.
Let’s hope someone buys the red platforms.
When to go
The Historic Everett Theatre plans to sell its old costumes today and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 2911 Colby Ave.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com
