The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon decided it was time to do some serious spring cleaning by having a costume sale a few weeks ago Saturday February 12th to be precise. The RSC wanted to clear out all its old stock of costumes from its wardrobes by putting up no less than 15,000 items up for sale, the sale was held at the rehearsal rooms in Arden Street.
Hundreds of people turned up at the Arden Street rehearsal rooms to grab what they could from the vast array of costumes and gowns and even Egyptian headdresses were up for sale including some very chic and sharp business suits. In total the sale items included 500 shirts and some 1,000 shoes to some 300 hats but it was not only clothing that you could buy included in the sale was jewellery and even chain mail and some rather eloquent and elaborate costumes ranging from the mediaeval era through to 20th century costumes all of which have readily appeared and featured in the Royal Shakespeare Companies productions over the last 30yrs or so.
This sale was the first one to be held since 2007 and its main aim was to clear up and make more space available at the RSC costume store which holds a staggering amount of items 40,000 in total at the last audit plus by holding the sale £55,000 was raised as a result and it will help with buying new items. Jane Hewson who was first in the queue and had travelled from Ross-On-Wye was at the doors at midnight and waited 10hrs before the doors even opened the reason for the enthusiasm to get there first was understandable since the 50yr old runs a local theatre group back in her hometown and was overly keen to get some fantastic costumes from the most famous theatre production company in the world for upcoming productions but also get hold of some star name buys which were on offer which she now plans to respectively auction off to raise money to fund future productions at the theatre in Ross-On-Wye.
Mrs Hewson was delighted with the items she had bought which included Ian McKellans shirt which he wore in The Seagull and David Tennants backstage slippers bought for £50 and also a Charles Dance waistcoat and last but not least Tim Pigott-Smith jacket from the production Women Beware Women both at £60 each. But that was not all she also managed to get further items from the two large school gym rooms which had been divided for convenience between modern and period items for her aspiring actors back in her hometown.
By the time the doors had opened a healthy queue of about 1,000 people had formed making its way down Arden Street and through the car park all keen to get there hands on some theatrical history with prices at the sale ranging from just £1 to a hefty £450 which you would have paid to get hold of David Tennants understudy costume from the production Love Labours Lost.
But it was not all a mad rush like some New Years high street sale the maximum amount of people allowed in at any one time was 200 with the queue outside been its longest at around midday a RSC spokeswoman commented on how well the sale had gone and was overwhelmed by the number of people who attended the costume sale.
Royal Visit
To coincide with the costume sale and the massive clearout speculation has been growing this week that a Royal Visit may be on the cards as hopes were rising that the Her Royal Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh could be visiting Stratford upon Avon on Friday the 4th of March the visit would be to officially open the recently renovated and refurbished Royal Shakespeare Theatre. But at the moment no official confirmation has been received whether the visit will take place but the Buckingham Palace diary does indicate that both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are due to visit the Warwickshire Area on that day.
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