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Artists from a wide variety of mediums descend on the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity to gain new skills in their chosen field. Those skills extend far beyond the spotlight to the backstage roles, including lighting, sound, and, in the case of Steinbach's Lauren Peters, wardrobe.
A frequent collaborator with groups like the Steinbach Arts Council and on the sitcom Maria and the Mennos and a longtime volunteer at the Mennonite Heritage Village, Peters came to the Banff Centre to try and expand her skill set. “I was asking around at different theatres,” says Peters, “and actually, someone at [Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre] referred me to this program. I was like, ‘Wow, I’ve got to go!’”
Since arriving in the mountains in late June, Peters has been acclimatizing to working in a professional wardrobe department as the Banff Centre’s Interplay program takes an operatic rendering of The Handmaid’s Tale. Peters and her team have been styling their take on the iconic handmaid headpiece and other fashion representations of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian society.
Peters’ passion for working in wardrobe was inspired from an early age, watching period TV shows like Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie. “I wanted to wear clothes like that all the time,” she laughs, “but I didn’t. You just buy dresses at the MCC and you just dress it up however you can.”
That passion grew into a desire to study fine arts and theatre at the University of Manitoba, where she discovered how to make her own dresses. It was then that she started volunteering at the Mennonite Heritage Village where she could live out those childhood Little House on the Prairie costume fantasies.
As she continues to learn and create at the Banff Centre, Peters hopes to turn her passions for wardrobe and theatre into a more full-time career. “I was hoping for more experience in a professional, well-oiled, large-scale production shop so that I could bring it home,” she says, noting that this experience could help her make this less of a volunteer effort in Steinbach and help develop a larger program in her home community. “A lot of the stuff that I’ll be bringing back is mostly tips and tricks about how to organize and who you need to talk to about a certain thing... a lot of more boring things in the sense of how do you work together as a team to create something.”
Despite her lack of experience in a professional wardrobe department, Peters’ potential has already been recognized by her peers that she works alongside. “One of my coworkers didn’t have any sort of theatre background,” shares Peters, “and decided to move to London and just asked people on the West End if they needed help and she’s worked on the West End just out of nowhere! So inspiring!”