The Wardrobe Supervisor’s Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide to Wardrobe

The Wardrobe Supervisor’s Toolkit: A Comprehensive Guide to Wardrobe is a complete resource for organizing and streamlining the wardrobe process for any live production, with tips and tricks to quickly and seamlessly dress performers for their next scene.

This book offers a foundation for anyone wishing to improve their wardrobe skills, as well as specific steps for universities and theater companies to implement into their wardrobe process. Elizabeth Polley draws on professional experiences to provide clear directions, numerous examples, practical forms and lists, and advice for keeping calm and bringing order to backstage costume changes. This toolkit includes paperwork samples, quick-change tricks, laundry solutions, dress rehearsal recommendations, items to have in a wardrobe kit, and much more.

This book is written for new and emerging Wardrobe professionals and costume shop managers, as well as students in technical theatre courses, including Costume Technology, Costume Design, Stage Management, and Production Management.

Elizabeth Polley is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Albright College and the Wardrobe Manager for The Glimmerglass Festival’s 2024 season. Recently, she worked as the Costume Shop Manager and Adjunct Professor for the Kean University Theatre Conservatory and Premiere Stages Theatre Company. Prior to this, she worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Costume Technology at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Highlights from Polley’s professional wardrobe career include dressing for the concerts of Taylor Swift, Pink, Justin Bieber, Paula Abdul, and Ariana Grande. Her national tour wardrobe work included Kinky Boots, Dirty Dancing, Jersey Boys, Spamalot!, West Side Story, Beauty & the Beast, Cats, and Ragtime.