Assistant Head of Wardrobe

Company Overview

Prairie Theatre Exchange is a 52-year-old professional theatre company located in downtown Winnipeg, on the third floor of Portage Place Mall.

PTE prioritizes asking “Why do we need to tell this story here, in this province, city, neighbourhood?”  We use theatre to exchange ideas.  This is what PTE does - we share stories through the art of theatre, exchanging ideas, in this place.

PTE strives to operate a professional theatre of the highest caliber for the cultural enrichment of the community; to support the development of theatre artists and new plays; foster theatre arts-related endeavours of others through sharing our facilities and expertise; and to encourage appreciation of theatre and to provide accessible, high-quality, innovative, educational opportunities.

Job Description

Reporting to the Head of Wardrobe, the Assistant Head of Wardrobe will be a key supporter of the production department, who will help ensure the smooth operations of the wardrobe aspects of productions mounted by Prairie Theatre Exchange. We seek an Assistant Head that is confident and comfortable working independently and with limited supervision.

Responsibilities:

Production

·       Construction or procurement of all costumes (rehearsal and final) and costumes used as props for all mainstage and one TYA mainstage production.

·       Under the supervision of the Head of Wardrobe, participate in cost estimates for the Wardrobe Department as preliminary and final designs are submitted.

·       Maintenance of wardrobe shop tools as required.

·       Supervision of casual wardrobe staff.  (Depending on the size of the show, a casual buyer may be hired, whose workload is normally shared with the Props Dept.  On exceptionally large costume shows, a casual builder(s) may be hired for costumes only).

·       Maintenance of costumes during the run of all productions as required.

·       Assistance to other production and administrative departments as necessary.

·       Assistance to other theatres or groups as time permits.

Preferred Candidate Attributes:

A strong working knowledge of sewing, altering and mending costumes, cleaning and ironing, fitting costumes onto performers, storing costumes.

A strong understanding of the creative process of the theatre as it applies to technical aspects of professional production.

Must be able to complete work with minimal supervision.

Ability to effectively communicate with all casual crew and PTE staff.