\nThe core of the collection was created by Pat Dybowski, who costumed 10 \nshows for the Amherst Gilbert & Sullivan Players (1978-1988).\nThese costumes (for all shows except Princess Ida, The Grand Duke, and \nUtopia, Ltd.) were generously donated to Opera-Lytes. For many years,\nPat spent weekends combing flea markets, cut-rate fabric outlets, and \nyard sales for accessories, notions and material. Mary Atwood added to\nthe inventory by making 68 childrens costumes for a lavish production of\n The King & I (2001) and eliciting a donation from Yolanda of 20 \nformal\ndresses for The Merry Widow (2000). Shirley Schlimgen completed the \nGilbert and Sullivan costume set with girl graduate gowns for Ida (2004)\n and\nstriking replicas of Star Trek uniforms for an outer-space version of \nUtopia (2002), to say nothing of kilts and sporrans for Brigadoon \n(2008).\nOther members and friends donated vintage 1950s garments for Pajama \nGame, She Loves Me, and Kiss Me, Kate, and the collection continued to \ngrow.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nBy May 2015, our storage space was so full we couldn’t step inside. So \nwe moved to temporary storage, bringing all our costumes together for \nthe first time.\nCostumes were aired, washed, set aside for mending, and, in some sad \ncases, discarded due to mold, sunlight or water damage. The collection \nis astonishing!\nOpera-Lytes owns 65 large storage bins of clothes, 25 feet of clothes on\n hangers, and about 25 bins of hats. We have two dozen crinolines, 6 \nwedding gowns,\n6 Victorian and 15 modern police uniforms, pajamas, kilts, fairies, \nhippies, strippers, gangsters, gondoliers, peasants, aristocrats, \nspacemen, a jester, a witch,\nand two potato outfits!\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nDo you have vacant space?<\/strong> Rent it to Opera-Lytes at a discounted rate! (the difference is tax deductible). The core of the collection was created by Pat Dybowski, who costumed 10 shows for the Amherst Gilbert & Sullivan Players (1978-1988). These costumes (for all shows except Princess Ida, The Grand Duke, and Utopia, Ltd.) were generously donated to Opera-Lytes. For many years, Pat spent weekends combing flea markets, cut-rate fabric outlets, and yard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/operalytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/operalytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/operalytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operalytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/operalytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/operalytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14,"href":"https:\/\/operalytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/operalytes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDo you need space?<\/strong> Clean out your closets and donate vintage clothing, hats, fabric.
\nDo you sew?<\/strong> Join the costume crew for our next production!
\nAre you organized?<\/strong> We need to create an online costume inventory.
\nCan you help with the bills?<\/strong> Storage, dry cleaning, and new costumes all cost money. Your contribution is tax-deductible.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"