For costumer Janet Kile, plundering through the costume room at the Washington Opera Company this summer was a grownup version of playing dress–up in somebody’s fancy closet.

When the DC play ended, Kile selected costumes for characters who would be performing locally in two comic operettas. They will perform in Monsieur Choufleuri by J. Offenback, and Trial by Jury , by Gilbert and Sullivan at 7:30 pm, Nov. 5 and at 3 pm, Nov.7.

When Kile first saw the costumes she would get to choose from, “they were arranged on long racks, kept by operas, as whole shows.” There were the costumes from Carmen , La Traviata , for instance, and miscellaneous other operas familiar to the costumer, who is also an actress.

Janet Kile unboxes costumes from the Washington Opera Company. Although the costumes had originally been created for internationally–renowned opera singers, Kile’s experience as a costumer and seamstress enabled her to choose garments that could be altered to fit the USC students who would be selected for the roles.

Months later when four cardboard cartons of costumes were delivered to Schlaefer’s office at USC’s School of Music, Kile said she had nearly forgotten some of the details until she unboxed the finery. As the costumer was flouncing out the brocade, taffeta, and satin dresses and smoothing wrinkles out of the capes, she began figuring out how she would have to alter them to fit.

The sheer weight of the costumes makes it hard to imagine an actor moving easily on stage in them. “Just think. People actually wore things like these as they went about their everyday lives,” she said.

By choosing two operettas set in approximately the same period, Schlaefer made it possible for Kile to choose costumes that could work smoothly for both. The costumes, reflecting the late 19th century, were heavily interfaced and lined, and the insides of many of the female costumes had boning.

“When a costume is built to be altered, the inside is not as pretty as the inside of street wear. When we were in Washington, they showed us how they constructed these costumes so they could alter them as drastically as necessary without hurting the fabric or the lines of the design.”

Kile, who has costumed shows for most theatres in Columbia, said costumes for opera may have more foundation built into them than costumes for other forms of theatre. “Opera singers would not want to wear corsets, for instance,” she said, noting that such constraints would interfere with their singing.

“Costumes are constructed so that a variety of actors, having a variety of physiques, can wear them,” she explained. When she chose costumes last summer for this fall’s productions, she had no more than a few measurements to work with.

At times her knowledge of garment construction has shown up in costumes as gussets, to afford freedom of arm movement. Conversely, Kile has discovered that fitting sleeves as tightly as possible prevents the entire garment from moving when the actor raises or lowers his or her arms.

“I remember noticing when I was working with the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City we were making lots of two pieces costumes. Most of the waistbands were done on wide elastic.”

Although performers would not usually wear in rehearsal the costume they will wear during the opera, it is important for them to wear something constructed very similarly.

“Some of these costumes have trains or some elaborate back interest, and there are underskirts, petticoats, then layers of overgarments.”

All this fabric could affect how a singer moves, and the director has taken this into consideration when blocking the opera, Kile explained. “This is one reason dress rehearsal is so important.”

Washington Opera Company’s willingness to rent the costumes to USC Opera was in part a courtesy and tribute to USC Opera’s new director Ellen Schlaefer. Schlaefer, who has frequently directed at Wolftrap Theatre in the DC area over past summers, has cultivated a professional network, especially in the nation’s capital, where she received her master’s degree from Catholic University of America.

Kile and Schlaefer, who have worked together in the past, including on the Schlaefer’s children’s opera company.