The Controlled Chaos of Costuming
When the Shepherd School of Music announces its opera productions, the costume room inside Brockman Hall leaps to life.
By Tracey Rhoades
For several months of the year, the Brockman Hall for Opera’s costume room sits idle, but once the Shepherd School of Music’s twice-yearly opera productions are announced, the 25-by-24-foot space, jam-packed with racks of hats, shoes, period clothing and essential accessories, hums with activity. Sewing machines, sergers, steamers, irons, mannequins, and even a rare 1950s electric hat stretcher spin into action under theater veterans Jessie Mullins, Rice’s director of opera operations, and Barb Dolney, wardrobe supervisor and president of the local chapter of the IATSE Theatrical Wardrobe Union.
Since the hall’s first opera performance in 2022, the room has supported eight theatrical productions, featuring hundreds of student performers with production-specific costumes. Last fall, 30 students (20 graduate and 10 undergraduate), plus one dancer, took the stage for Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” requiring Dolney to source and produce nearly 50 individual costumes.
“During preparation for a show, it can be chaotic, but come production time, it’s a controlled chaos,” explains Dolney, who describes herself as a “seamstress, dresser and head herder.”
While the costume room serves as the main hub for production preparation, there are also two adjacent dressing rooms and a wig and makeup suite to support the actors during shows. In addition to Mullins and Dolney, who have both had cameos in past productions, a student wardrobe crew and an outside designer all collaborate to ensure the opera singers are dressed to impress, from the opening notes to the final curtain call.
From the Winter 2026 issue of Rice Magazine