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11 2nd, 2008| 
| Alissa Wersal, right, tries on a wedding gown with help from friend Amy Kaufman at a costume closeout sale by the University of Montana Drama/Dance Department on Friday. Wersal, who intended to use the gown as part of a Halloween costume, eventually let the dress go to a customer who wanted to get married in it. Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian  Watch Watch a video of the Halloween costume-shopping frenzy at UM |
“That’s just something someone would see and go, ‘Oh, my God. I have to have it,’ ” said Alana Wight, a senior drama major.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Several hundred costumes that starred in musicals and theatrical productions at the university hung on racks on the main floor of the University Center for Halloween-hungry costume lovers to snatch up.
It was the second time the university’s Drama/Dance Department has offered some of its extensive costume stock for sale to the public, just in time for Halloween-costume preparations.
Last year’s sale was twice as big because it was the first time in at least a decade that anyone had rummaged through and organized the school’s inventory of clothing and costumes, said Lisa Marie Hyslop, university costume shop manager.
This year, it took a month for students and faculty to determine what needed to go and what should stay. Much depends on the lineup of productions scheduled for the future.
It’s doubtful the Drama/Dance Department will hold a costume closeout next year. But it’s possible there will be another two years from now.
“Our stock should be usable and not some augmentation of the Goodwill,” Hyslop said.
Prices ranged from 25 cents to $20 and the proceeds help defray costs of buying and making new costumes for future performances.
Early Friday, the 18th and 19th century-style dresses were flying off the rack, Wight said.
Winner of the giant purple donkey head - constructed from styrofoam, velvet and a bike helmet, and which debuted almost a decade ago in UM’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” - was Robert Price, a 25-year-old student from Great Falls, who’s obsessed with Halloween and any other excuse that allows him to sport outrageous attire.
Last year, Price wore a hot-pink Marge Simpson costume to Maggotfest, and he has dressed up as a big blue elephant for past Halloweens.
When he awoke Friday morning, Price planned to dress up as the Joker from “The Dark Knight,” released in July. But one glimpse of the purple donkey head changed all that. Fifteen dollars later, Price walked through the UC showing off his new accessory.
For some browsers, it was as much a bridal fair as it was costume shopping.
Maura Donovan, 21, was scheduled to have breakfast with a friend in the UC. But their attention was diverted by the rack of white wedding gowns - many of them donated to the costume shop and a few that had never been worn. Donovan, of Superior, plans to wed this July. Shopping for a wedding dress has been a fairly frustrating experience, considering the prices for these once-in-a-lifetime garments, she said. She found a wedding gown that she loves - but for $800, which is outside her price range.
“I like that dress,” said Donovan, pointing to Alissa Wersal, a 20-year-old sophomore from Minneapolis, who happened to have on a dreamy dress with a long elegant train.
Wersal and a friend were at the costume sale right at 10 a.m. to get the best deals. She went in with no plan in mind, but pieced together a sexy Zorro idea based on a black cowboy hat and a pink, old-fashioned eye mask. The gown matched the idea perfectly, and, yes, Wersal half thought about splattering some fake bloodstains on it.
But if Donovan wanted it for its intended purpose - a wedding - how could a girl say no?
“I understand,” Wersal said, generously handing it over. “They’re expensive and it’s really pretty.”
Donovan squeezed into the dress. It almost fit, but she bought the $20 wedding gown anyway.
“I’m just going to get skinnier,” she said.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
