A staple of every traditional pantomime is the costumes, especially the outrageous, extravagant dresses worn by the panto dame. The
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch Wardrobe department have been making the dresses for the pantomime dame at
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch for many years, and have worked on all of the costumes for 2019's panto,
Robin Hood.
Nicola Thomas has worked at
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch for ten years after graduating from a BA in theatre design and costume construction, and has been Wardrobe Manager since 2018. Her favourite costume in this year’s pantomime is the evil witch Morgana’s elaborate horned ensemble.
‘I love making period costumes so any show that I can do that for is great but I do love making costumes for panto too because of the scale of makes and they're always very different and interesting.’
Richard Foxton, who has worked on many pantomimes, including last year’s panto at Queen’s Theatre,
Jack and the Beanstalk, designed the costumes and set for the show
.
Construction on the costumes begin as early as September, with over 250 metres of fabric being used. There are 65 costumes in the show, all of which are washed more than twice a day.
Written by
Andrew Pollard and directed by
Douglas Rintoul (the
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch’s Artistic Director), this family friendly actor-musician panto is twanging to the beats of pop hits from across the decades, filled with traditional audience participation and laugh out loud silliness. This heroic panto spectacular will be playing from
Thursday 28 November to
Sunday 5 January.
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Nicola Thomas in the wardrobe[/caption]
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Dresses made by Queen's Theatre Hornchurch wardrobe[/caption]
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Nanny Fanny's costume designed by Richard Foxton[/caption]
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John Barr as Nanny Fanny in a costume designed by Richard Foxton and made by the wardrobe department[/caption]
