Costumes of the Bellingham Theatre Guild Being Sold for Halloween

Gowns, medieval outfits, and a pink octopus costume will be available for the public to shop through the Saturday before Halloween at the Bellingham Theatre Guild.

The theater is opening its surplus of costumes that have accumulated from past shows.

Bellingham Theatre Guild President John Purdie said, “We have decades of costumes that have piled up.” Founded in 1929, the guild has been putting on shows for 84 years and is entering its 85^th season.

World War II uniforms and real wedding dresses have been donated in the past, Purdie said.

“It should be fun, it should be a great place to find a costume. If you came with 10 bucks you’d probably be able to find some good stuff,” said Kathy Murray, vice president of the guild.

The costume sale is October 26 at 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Lettered Streets Neighborhood, 1600 H Street.

 The 110-year-old building is bright blue and pink, and sticks out in the historical neighborhood that was once the edge of town, as explained by volunteers at a behind-the-curtain tour of the theatre.

“If you want to be something specific, there will be specialty type things. And there’s all different kinds of hats and shoes,” Murray said, and the costume room is larger than Western Washington University’s theatre costume room.

We won’t have fantasy characters like Batman or monster costumes, Purdie said, but we have some things you can make into other costumes.

Last year was the first time the Bellingham Theatre Guild put on the costume sale.

“A part of it is to give people the opportunity to come in and buy costumes,” Mike Schakel said, a member of the board of directors.

It also gives the guild a chance to clean house and make room for future shows Schakel said.

Money raised from the sale will go towards future productions, volunteer recognition/appreciation, and the facility.

In the past shoppers have been very generous giving donations for the costumes, Schakel said.

Schakel became involved with the theatre six years ago with his family when they moved from California. 

His son and daughter were 10 and 12 years-old, and the opportunity this community had for children’s theatre was “so lucky,” he said.

“The nice thing about theatre, particularly here, is we get actors from all over,” Schakel said.

Doing a good job reaching outside the guild, he said, the upcoming show ‘Inspecting Carol’ only has about 4 actors from the guild of the 12-13 in the show.

The ‘Sweeney Todd’ show was acted out by a majority of Western students, Schakel said.