Teacher Tips: Getting Costumes For The School Play

Remember back in the day when the moms got together and made their kids' costumes for the school play? Back when participation was what was important, as opposed to keeping up with/doing better than... or even having the perfect Instagrammable moments?

Not everything has to be fancy or flashy, and sometimes you just have to do the best you can with what you have. Here's a brief article with some suggestions on how to get costumes for a school play when you have limited resources.

The following article was originally published December 26, 2010

How to get Costumes for a School Play

Putting on a school play can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a lot of work. Choosing a play (or writing one); casting the performers; directing the action; staging rehearsals; coming up with the sets, props and costumes; and perhaps hardest of all, drawing an audience, all require a lot of organized effort.

When it comes to getting the costumes for a school play, there are a few different options to consider. Costumes can be rented, purchased or they can be made by someone such as a staff person or a parent or even the students themselves. Deciding which option is best will depend on the size of the play.

For a simple production with little kids (i.e., K-1), it may be enough to have the kids wear masks. They could also wear leotards or long-sleeved T-shirts with sweat or dance pants in a solid color to coordinate with their mask. Or, to make things simpler, they could all wear black.

For older groups of students (grades 2-4) who can learn and recite enough for a full one- or two-act play with multiple scenes, clothing, jewelry and accessories could be purchased in appropriate sizes from a thrift store to create costumes. The advantage of purchasing thrift store clothing is that it is cheap in cost and, because it’s already “made”, the items are easier to adapt for costumes than creating wardrobe from scratch.

Thrift store clothing can easily be cut down, dyed or painted to suit the needs of the production. Students can wear ballet, character, jazz, or other suitable dance shoes to complete their costumes, and quite often parents will be willing to pay for these.

When mounting a school play with middle and high school students, art and home economics classes can be a good source of potential costumers and even set-builders. Coordinating with other teachers to have their students participate in play production will help to delegate some of the responsibility, and if the school has a music teacher, enlist his or her help as well to find music students willing to participate.

Making costumes for a school play is a great way to get students involved in other aspects of play production and allows students who do not have a speaking part to be involved. Having original costumes also adds to the play’s uniqueness, particularly if the script is not original. If students are too young to make costumes, try enlisting parents or volunteers from church groups or college service organizations.

If making costumes is not an option even with adapting clothing purchased at a thrift store, the next best option will be to rent costumes. Your local telephone directory or a quick Internet search will help you determine where the nearest costume rental company is that may have what you need. Whichever route you choose for obtaining costumes for your school play, enlisting at least one other person to help with the work load will help things go smoother.