Thousands of sequins. Dozens of pairs of boots. Scraps of fabric in every imaginable colour and texture – animal print, velvet, gingham, pleather – and five kilometres of trim.
And, when in doubt, more sequins.
For costume designer Ming Wong, 48, that’s just another day at the office. An award-winning designer with a laundry list of credits, she’s one of the most in-demand costumers in Toronto.
Five kilometres of trim were used in the costumes for Robin Hood: A Very Merry Family Musical.
And while this time of year is busy for most people, it’s been a particularly demanding stretch for Wong, who since the pandemic has been in charge of costumes for the city’s annual, big-budget pantomime.
Created by theatre producer Ross Petty in 1996, the holiday panto is a Christmastime staple. Inspired by British pantomimes, the shows are usually based on a fairy tale, and tend to feature heavy-handed dollops of audience participation, pop songs and topical jokes.
Petty, 79, retired from producing the panto in 2022. (He remains involved as executive producer emeritus.) But last year, Canadian Stage picked up the tradition with The Wizard of Oz, starring Julia Pulo in the lead role alongside Dan Chameroy as the oh-so-beloved Plumbum, a recurring fairy godmother-esque character in Petty’s panto-verse. (Played in drag, the role of Plumbum is considered a “dame” in the world of pantomime.)
Robin Hood is a brand new story for the pantomime this year.DUANE COLE/The Globe and Mail
This year, things look a little different. For one, there’s no Plumbum, since Chameroy’s still onstage in the Stratford Festival’s Annie. (Though fear not a dearth of bum – Daniel Williston plays Plumbum’s sister, Sparklebum.) It’s a whole new story this year, too: Robin Hood. (Pulo once again stars in the title role.) The ensemble is also larger.
In a lot of ways, the colourful, larger-than-life pantomime is Wong’s Super Bowl. She’s known how to use a sewing machine since she was a child, and fondly recalls taking on sewing projects in high school and while studying at OCAD University.
A part-time job at Theatrix, a costume rental company, wound up serving as a launch pad for Wong’s design career, she said. “Getting into costumes was a little bit of a happy accident,” she said. “I feel very lucky that this is where I am now.”
Here’s how Wong took the holiday pantomime’s costumes from sketch to stage at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, where Robin Hood will run until Jan. 4.