original Rent costumes!

none in this stock...

shucks.

This theater I am working at is the theater that staged Rent’s original production. The fake brick wall at the back of the theater is still here. It is carved out of foam or poly-form of some kind. The bricks on the sides are real, though. It only has to fake being a New York set a tiny bit.

Props and costumes are just like sets in this regard - if you use what is in the building, your play will look like previous plays. In this case, a little downtown Manhattan - even if the show is called We Live in Cairo.

20-something artist friends supporting each other through a revolution .... what this theater does well.

You can spot the brick wall at the back of the set in this musical. So, Rent bricks in Cairo. But that was it for the physical moments of New York Theater Workshop history that I could see.

The plaid pants, the slip or the striped scarf would have been very recognizable - and maybe very wrong for Cairo in 2006-2017 … But! a cap? a scarf?

I bet all of us would have had the tiniest ping of recognition.

I am going to make a pitch for using costume stocks as much as possible and show you how to do it below. I am putting what seems like obvious advice behind a paywall because,

1. $25 gift certificates to New York Theater Workshop for anyone who goes to We Live in Cairo playing there right now until November 24. $25 is the price of a rush ticket - so subscribers see this show for free.

2. You get $500 worth of props, sets and costumes for my $5 how-to encouragement to use a stock.

   While that seems like obvious advice “use what you have” - you would be shocked at how many of us designers skip this step and just order everything for $20 from Amazon. Expensive/Cheap emergency purchases have their place in theater, for sure.

But! Online ordering gives you $5 of value for $20 of ease and speed. I want everyone to get $500 of prop and costume value for $5 with some the same amount of ease and speed.

If you want that, too, subscribe and read on.