A Valentine From Llanview
It’s not that far of a stretch to envision ONE LIFE TO LIVE’s Todd as a ruthless medieval monarch. Or Jessica as an angelic yet passionate 19th century heroine. Or Natalie as a feisty girl explorer. Is it?
OLTL didn’t think so.
So, once upon a time — well, OLTL’s 2007 Valentine’s Day episode, at least — three fantasy stories starring front-burner characters spring to life from fairy tales. But first, they all needed to be appropriately dressed.
This stand-alone episode looks like it was a lot of work (see the photos) for the wardrobe and set departments. Recently, I paid a visit to my OLTL friends, including costume designer Susan Gammie, associate costume designer Sally Lesser and assistant costume designer David Brooks to learn all about their adventures finding the right looks for a mummy, a king and a stableboy.
The Wuthering Heights-inspired story involving Nash, Antonio and Jessica begins with Jessica reading a story to Bree. Suddenly, Jessica becomes an English heroine torn between her love for the lord of the manor and the stableboy (that would be Antonio and Nash, respectively). Most of their costumes were rented from the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and had been used for a production of Pride and Prejudice. Nash’s leather coat was vintage 1970s. Kamar de los Reyes (Antonio) so loved his suit that he posed in it for the February issue of Urban Latino. (Where else will you learn that kind of information besides Soapoperaweekly.com?)
Starr is reading a bedtime story to Jack when she begins to imagine her parents as the bickering King Todd and Queen Blair. Todd is wonderfully typecast as a grouchy king with Starr as his rebellious teenage princess daughter. There again, the design team told me, many of the costumes were rented from theaters. Starr’s princess dress (Kristen Alderson admitted to me later that she felt like a real princess) was borrowed from the Juilliard school at Lincoln Center. There, Gammie recalls, they found a dress small enough to fit the petite Alderson with a minimum of alteration. But is it kosher to alter a rental, I asked? Lesser explained that they were expected to return all the costumes the way they came, but tell the rental departments what they’ve done. For example, when Lesser added some velvet piping to a vest, the theater company enthusiastically asked her not to change it back.
Blair’s (Kassie DePaiva) dress was bought from museumreplicas.com and jazzed up considerably. Cole wore a real suit of armor (thanks to the abundance of Renaissance Fairs, finding this was not a problem — who knew?) but it was quite heavy. Brandon Buddy (Cole) turned out to be a real prince and a good sport when he wore it without complaint. Robin Strasser got a kick out of dressing quite unlike Dorian. She appears as Blair’s attendant and wears a headpiece frequently worn by the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, a role Strasser said she’s sure she’ll be playing at some point. Todd’s (Trevor St. John) leather tunic was found on a London-based goth website. All the women wore hair extensions.
Finally, Natalie (Melissa Archer) is reading a novel when she envisions herself as an explorer in the 1930s. Natalie, Roxy and Rex are exploring an ancient tomb when they uncover a mummy. Moments (and many layers) later, it’s a caped Pharoh John who immediately falls in love with her. For this story, many of the costumes were made (or “built,” as the designers like to say) at OLTL. Gammie found some old dress patterns and built a dress for Natalie. Rex’s costume came straight from the “period knockoff” section of the J. Peterman line.
Lesser adds that everyone looked incredible, but David Fumero‘s (Cristian) medieval bodyguard really had the studio buzzing. “Everybody in the whole building was swooning. Something about that leather tunic lived quite happily on that body,” laughed Gammie.
Obviously, the wardrobe department loves the chance to do things a little differently, and so does the cast. However, Gammie adds, the women tend to be a little more excited about the costume angle than the men, at first. “They are just delighted and look at what’s in the room and go, ‘Ah, is that for me? Is that for me? Oh great, I can’t wait to try that on.’ They are all squealing and delighted and having tons of fun. The men walk in kind of sheepishly and give a sideways glance to the costume and go, ‘Oh, that’s not for me, is it?’ with this extremely trepidatious feeling. Once they put the clothes on, they really get into it and walk out feeling great. ‘Oh, look how fun this is.'”
Fun indeed.
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