 When a show is loaded into a theatre, the Costume Designer and Costume Shop staff hand off the responsibility for all costumes and accessories to the show’s Wardrobe Supervisor. For the San Francisco production of Wicked that person is Gillian Kadish. Ms. Kadish moved to the United States from England in 1991 and has worked steadily in Theatrical Wardrobe since 1993. She served in both capacities as Wardrobe Supervisor and Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor on Beauty and the Beast, Show Boat, Ragtime, Lion King, and the Los Angeles production of Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Gillian completed an Art Foundation Course at The Heatherly School of Fine Art in London, and has a degree in Costume and Set Design for Theater and Television from West Sussex College of Design. At age 24, she was the youngest person to be accepted by BBC Television as a Properties buyer. Gillian was awarded the Arundel Follies prize for Achievement in Costume Design for Factotum Theatre Company’s production of “Great Expectations."
 What are your responsibilities as Wardrobe Supervisor? How many staffers do you manage? How many costumes do you maintain?
I am responsible for running the Wardrobe department, which includes 12 dressers, 1 stitcher and 1 laundry person. I organize a weekly schedule for maintaining, fixing and laundering the costumes. This involves overseeing all the costume, monkey wing and shoe repairs. I am responsible, along with my assistant, for working out the dresser cues (tracks) of who and where they will dress their performers. I organize ordering costumes from various vendors for existing/and or new performers. With the stitcher, I then oversee the fitting of the new costumes. I take care of organizing weekly dry cleaning, shoe repair, and petty cash shopping. I work closely with the Production Wardrobe Supervisor and Design associate to make sure the show looks the way Susan Hilferty designed it. We maintain well over 300 complete sets of costumes some of which involve 4 or 5 pieces for one costume. I also shop constantly for fabrics, notions, laundry supplies, shoe supplies, and under garments. I am responsible for shipping costumes back to New York or to other Wicked Companies, as we have performers who are "Universal Swings" which means they fill in for actors out on vacation or other circumstances and travel from show to show with a complete set of their own costumes.
The Wardrobe department seems to work long hours. What is a typical day like for you, or is there such a thing?
We do work very long hours, and my assistant and I often work on our days off shopping for the show or dropping off shoes to the shoe repair shop. We work between 40-50 hours a week, and have on occasion put in a 65-hour workweek. A typical day for me starts early in the morning with phone calls from New York with regard to costume orders or the coming and goings of new performers. I then go to work at 1:00pm for the costume maintenance work call. At 6:30pm we get ready for the show and leave at around 11:00pm. We work 6 days a week and Monday is our one day-off. If you are a Supervisor on tour the hours can be even more grueling, especially with traveling and loading the show in to a new theatre every 2-6 weeks.
 What’s the greatest challenge for the Wardrobe department regarding costume maintenance and repair for Wicked? What’s the greatest pleasure?
Maintaining the integrity of the designers vision, but making the costumes work for 8 performances a week and for quick changes. For example, the "Elphaba" (the green witch) dresses are mostly all black. After being worn for 8 shows a week the inside of the collar is covered in green makeup. If we were to continually clean the make up the collar would soon be worn away from all the scrubbing. Our solution is to make a snap in collar liner that can be removed for laundering. We often have to use alternative fabrics that hold up better to repeat wears, and quick change costumes by replacing zippers with snaps or Velcro. Often we have to alter the way a costume is worn for a performer, again, making it comfortable for them, but without destroying the designers vision. It can be a challenge to find the right "compromise" between design and functionality.
The greatest pleasure is problem solving, and seeing just what sort of ingenious things the designers or we can come up with for costumes. Working on The Lion King, I loved that the baby elephant costume and the baby elephant puppet were made out of "Tyvek" the same material used for Fed Ex envelopes and for tenting a house during termite spraying! The greatest pleasure on Wicked is seeing how Susan Hilferty made the costumes so unique. The costumes look like they are of another time or world. Ms.Hilferty drew from many different time periods, mixed them up and then used de-construction and asymmetry to make the costumes look like they are from a time period all their own.
 You are responsible for planning the “quick changes.” Tell us how, in general, a quick change is planned and what the fastest quick change is in the show?
Each change has to be assessed as to how fast it has to be and how many elements of clothing have to be changed. If a performer does not have time to return to the dressing room, we may have to locate the change on the deck of the stage or just off stage to save time. Sometimes if it is a really fast change more than one dresser is required. For example, one person may be removing shoes, another a jacket, all while the hair person is also changing the performers wig. The fastest change we have in the show is when "Elphaba" goes from her Shiz costume into the Defying Gravity dress, which is 19 seconds.
Do you have any quick change or costume malfunction stories you can share?
Knock on wood, I've never had any real disasters concerning costumes on stage. There are daily malfunctions however! I have had to think very quickly on my feet when things have ripped, been broken or torn on stage. Recently a performer's shoelace broke seconds before he had to dance on stage. I did not have time to run back to the Wardrobe room for a new shoe lace and knew he could not get through the dance number with a loose shoe on his foot. I grabbed a roll of gaffer’s tape of the prop table on the stage and taped his shoe up! We often have to do repairs during the show. It is usually a broken zipper, torn or split pair of pants, torn hem, or a broken shoe heel. In extreme cases we have had to substitute costumes from an understudy to a performer if we do not have time to fix the costume before the performer has to wear it on stage again.
What is your favorite period in time regarding fashion and costuming?
Without a doubt, the 1940's, especially the 1940's in Hollywood and in the film industry. It is wonderful to see how so many of the 40's period films have taken liberty with a period costume and given it a 40's flair. There is nothing like seeing a southern belle in a crinoline frock with shoulder pads! I think the 30/40/50's designer Adrian was spectacular and created amazing film and fashion design. Coincidentally, Adrian designed the costumes for "The Wizard of Oz." (at right: Adrian's fabulous designs for Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and Norma Shearer in MGM's classic film," The Women.")
 What inspired you to work with costumes? What was the first show you worked on? Memorable shows other than Wicked?
I was inspired by costumes at a very early age. When I was six, my parents started taking me once a year to see the Royal Ballet in London. I was always enthralled by the beauty of the ballet and by the costumes, in particular. I was not very academic at school, but I had a passion for drawing, painting and sewing. I always loved helping create the costumes for school plays, and enjoyed making costumes for fancy dress parties. I knew that I would eventually have a career being creative in some way. The first Broadway show I ever worked on was Crazy For You. My first day on the job during my first quick change, my performer's zipper broke in her ‘fantasy banker’ costume. I put 4 safety pins in the back of her costume and she was back on stage in seconds! My favorite job was working as a costume design assistant on the Fox reality show "Who Wants to Marry a Multi Millionaire?” It was so much fun to get paid to go and costume 60 crazy women in to Bridal gowns in Las Vegas. Each morning, I was driven to work down the Vegas strip in a bridal limousine!
Who is your mentor? What is the greatest piece of advice you received?
Richard Porter. He ran the Theater/Television Design Program at West Sussex College of Design. We are still dear friends to this day (nearly 20 years later). The greatest piece of advice he gave me was "You don't have what it takes to be a great theater designer, but you do have enormous creativity that you should channel into a successful career working with or for other designers.” At the age of 22, I was crushed to hear that, but I soon came to realize he was right. As harsh as it seemed at the time it was the best piece of advice he could have given me. Once I saw how many other options there were to use my design creativity in other ways I was on my way to my first job with BBC television in London.
What is the tool or trick-of-the-trade you cannot work without?
I can't live without the obvious — a needle and thread. The real truth, however, is to be in this business you can't live without "ingenuity." As cheesy as it may sound, my motto is "necessity is the mother of invention." Every day I have to think how to use uncommon objects and fabrics to fix things on Wicked! The other day we used a brass metal paper fastener to replace a missing metal stud on a shoe. It looks exactly the same from the first row in the theatre!
Anything about your job or the production of Wicked that we didn’t ask you and should have?
You didn't ask, "do you enjoy your job?" I love what I do, and although it can be stressful and pressurized sometimes, I wouldn't change what I do for all the world.
For more on Wicked costumes, click here.
Head shot photo courtesy of Gillian Kadish. Wicked Production photos: Joan Marcus.
The Women" photo courtesy of MGM. Backstage photos: Cece Hugo
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