CHARLOTTE'S WEB: The costumes

By Melissa Benson, costume shop cutter/draper

Now that CHARLOTTE'S WEB is on the mainstage, it's exciting for me to see the audiences' reaction to the costumes.

This show was so much fun to work on -- from a giant pig, to Templeton the rat, to Charlotte and so many others. But I'd have to say my favorite pattern to figure out was the Mother Goose and her baby goslings.

One of the concepts behind the shows was the transformation of the actors from their human characters to their animal characters.

In regards to Mother Goose, actress Alison Mary Forbes plays the Mom (her human character) and Mother Goose (her animal character). When she becomes the Goose, backstage she turns her apron around and adds a petticoat for her "feathers".

The young performers playing the goslings also play school girls. As school girls (their human character) they are wearing dresses, petticoats and bloomers. When they become goslings they have to put on an extra petticoat -- which creates a goose silhouette and adds a "feathery" pinafore.

It has been so much fun to figure out how to create a goose shape and to build an under structure that changed the outfit without having to build a new costume!

(Photo: Alison Mary Forbes as Mother Goose with her baby goslings talking to Templeton, played by Todd Denning and John Filmanowicz as Wilbur and Taylor Vraney as Fern)