Catsue McBroom sits at her dining room table, which is overflowing with colourful fabrics, pins, papers and flowers in a flurry of whimsical artistic activity.
As costume, prop and set designer for Theatre Collingwood’s new show Alice in Wonderland: The Panto – one of the theatre company’s first forays into producing their own shows in a long time – costumes, hats and set pieces are scattered all over her home these days in preparation for the show’s opening on Dec. 11.
“I’m super jazzed, not only to work with Erica (Angus) again, but also that Theatre Collingwood is mounting this kind of production because they haven’t done that for a long time,” said McBroom.
Written by Anne Raciunas and directed by Theatre Collingwood’s executive director Erica Angus, Alice in Wonderland: The Panto follows the story of Alice as she navigates her way through the outrageous world of Wonderland.
Panto, or pantomimes, are a participatory form of theatre in which the audience is encouraged to sing along and shout out phrases to the performers. Today, pantomimes include songs, gags, slapstick comedy, dancing and special effects. It combines humour with a story based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or folktale.
McBroom took some inspiration for many of her designs for the show from John Tenniel’s original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland black and white illustrations.
“I get inspiration from everywhere,” she said.
A professional millner and costume designer by trade, McBroom worked in Toronto for years for companies such as Malabar Limited, Mirvish and the National Ballet before moving up to Thornbury from King City five years ago with her artistic director husband. However, two years ago, life threw McBroom a curveball and her husband died of cancer. Although the couple had been planning to build a new house in Moonstone, McBroom instead then decided to buy a small house in Collingwood which now serves as her home and workspace.
Since the move, she’s made connections with Theatre Collingwood through Angus, who she met while working with Theatre by the Bay in Barrie years ago, and has done costume and design work for different events.
“This has been a really great experience right now to get through a lot of difficult stuff,” she said. “The role of costume designer is always to help the actor get into that character. It’s quite a collaboration. It’s why I love live theatre.”
Angus echoes McBroom’s sentiments.
“What I’m loving about this production is it is so collaborative,” said Angus. “Anne has written an amazing script. There are beautiful nuggets of imagination in these words.”
Originally planned to run for one week, tickets sold fast before Angus says she even had a chance to do any advertising, which is what led to them adding a second week of runs.
“As creative people, we always want to push ourselves to do a little more. Anne has been writing for a while, but she had a desire to write a full script,” said Angus. “I thought it was a great way for us to dip our toe into creating.”
“The support from the community has been incredible. I’m so pleased we can do this for the community,” she said.
Alice in Wonderland: The Panto runs for 14 performances Dec. 11 to 21 at the Simcoe Street Theatre and tickets are selling fast. For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
