BF23: Sawchuk finds her passion in the Festival's wardrobe department
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
This year’s season at the Blyth Festival showcases Canadian stories from a variety of time periods, set in a number of distinct locations. One of the most essential, often unsung departments of the Festival, bringing all these distinct worlds to life for audiences is the costume department. Blyth’s own Ella Sawchuk is working as the festival’s wardrobe assistant this season.
As wardrobe assistant, Sawchuk is responsible for a lot of the little things that keep the costume department running smoothly. “I help out the head of wardrobe and the designers with whatever they need. Today, I was labelling shoes and helping to do measurements. I also take a lot of notes and pictures.”
This is Sawchuk's second year as a wardrobe assistant, but her first full Festival season.
“Last year I was able to help out on The Drawer Boy and Cottagers and Indians - it was really cool to see things I’d worked on up on stage!”
This year, Sawchuk finds herself under the direction of Jennifer Triemstra-Johnson, who has oft done costume design for the Festival. This year, Triemstra-Johnson has taken on the massive job of lead costume designer on the rural epic The Donnellys: A Trilogy - a multi-day spectacle with a large cast, most of whom are playing multiple characters. Complicating matters further is recent damage done to the Festival’s costume collection. “We lost a lot of wardrobe to mould during COVID, especially a lot of the historical stuff,” Sawchuk explained. “Right now we’re trying to figure out what we still have and what we need to get. Especially for the Donnellys, which is a huge 10-person cast - that’s a lot of costumes!”
Getting ready for opening night consists of “lots of shopping, lots of planning, and building the historical things we need. We do secondhand shopping where we can and find specific historical things online. This year we can’t really do rentals because the Donnellys is an outdoor show - you wouldn’t want them to get ruined!”
Once the season officially starts, it’s time for the wardrobe assistant to switch gears. “Once the show starts, there will be lots of laundry to do and repairs. Repairs are always important.”
The talented young tailor is comfortable assisting Triemstra-Johnson with the daunting task of dressing The Donnellys, as the two have worked together in the past. Sawchuk even credits the local business owner for helping her choose her current career path. “I wanted to be a fashion designer for a little bit and then I flip-flopped and wanted to do science, but when I started working with Jennifer I decided that the work that I want to do is costuming. She runs the vintage store in town, but she also does costumes and rentals. Working for her was a lot of sewing, fixing up old vintage things and creating new things.” That store, Pick a Posie, is located only a few minutes from Memorial Hall on Queen Street, and is full of expertly curated, timeless clothing and accessories.
When Sawchuk isn’t in Blyth working on costumes, she’s at school, learning about working on costumes. “I just got back from Dalhousie mid-April - not that long ago. I’m doing costume studies there - it’s the most technical four-year program in Canada and I love it.” Both of these curricular and extra-curricular efforts are essential steps on Sawchuk’s path towards becoming a full-fledged costume designer. “Theatrical costuming is about creativity, not just technical accuracy. I’m strictly behind the scenes - I’m not somebody who wants to be on stage. I want to be a costume designer. I love the theatre, but I also want to work in film - specifically historical film or historical television.”
Sawchuk is also very excited to see the shows as they come together. “I’ve just seen them in pieces right now. I’ve read most of the scripts, but there’s so much difference between a script and seeing people act it out on stage. I got to see the first read-through of Liars at a Funeral, the season’s opening show, and it was so different from just reading the script; it’s got a great cast and I’m really excited to see what they do with that show.”
So what advice does this young local talent have for even younger locals hoping to develop their sewing skills? “Practice. Practice allows you to gain competency and once you have that people can see that and more opportunities will open up. Just build the skills first.”