Shakespeare in the Park has been thrust into a dramatic pause, so to speak, as real-life villains have stolen costumes from the Lethbridge Shakespeare Performance Society’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost.
According to Director Dawn McCaugherty, thieves made off with the wardrobe Monday night from the area of 7 Avenue and 2 Street South.
“We had a very successful first two performances, and some of the costume pieces were taken home to be laundered by our laundering team. In the process, there was a theft of the bag of costumes from the trunk of one of the cast members’ cars,” McCaugherty adds. “We’re looking at the loss of quite a few pieces, not everything, but quite a few.”
Photos of the costumes have been posted on the society’s official Facebook page at LethbridgeShakespeare. If anyone has information about the stolen items, please contact Kate at 403-329-4568.
A $200 reward has been offered to help try and recover the items.
“So much time and effort goes into making these amazing pieces and putting together the show,” notes an online post about the incident.
McCaugherty notes it is hoped that if the person(s) who took the bag opened it and saw it only contained costumes, “they’d just toss the bag away somewhere. Perhaps it’s findable. It might be in somebody’s recycling or garbage bin or under a hedge or anything like that.”
“We were wondering if there would be any point in asking people to double check their yards if they don’t mind or have a look around for it,” says McCaugherty.
McCaugherty says even though not having the costumes during upcoming performances will influence the aesthetic of the production, “the show must go on.”
“Things like this happen, so we will rise above. We have company members out right now looking through secondhand stores and making contacts to see what might be found to replace the missing pieces,” McCaugherty adds. “We’re going to approach some of the other theatre companies in town and see if there’s any possibility of borrowing more common pieces like the men’s white dress shirts.”
The show will go on, McCaugherty says. “We’ll be fine. We’d just like them back, as soon as possible.”
