Leslie Advokat checks out flower Tina Klein, and Paulette LaDouceur, Dana Acheson and Danny Oravec.

Leslie Advokat is placing
the spark in children's
theater productions.

AARON HALABE

Special to The Jewish News

C

ostume designer Les-
lie Advokat is defying
at least part of an old
show business maxim:
Avoid working with ani-
mals and small children.
While there are no animals to
outfit in her current produc-
tion, Keep Your Sunny Side
Up, the play features an all-
children's cast.
Produced by the Lunch

Bunch Players, the produc-
tion is a 1940s song and
dance review. Mrs. Advokat
says the assignment challeng-
ed her to design costumes
that are both historically ac-
curate and functional enough
for the many dance numbers
in the production.
Mrs. Advokat consulted
reference books and watched
old movies to acquaint herself
with 1940s clothing styles. A
bigger challenge, she says,
was to produce costumes that
allow dancers freedom of
movement.

"I read the script and I try
to pin down as many people
as I can — especially the
director and the choreog-
rapher," Mrs. Advokat says.
"The dance numbers are
costumed according to the
way the dances are done. And
from the director, I try to get
a feel for how she interprets
the play and the individual
characters — how she feels
they should look, and
then I take it from there."
Director Mary Bremer
praised Mrs. Advokat for her
artistic sense and profes-
sionalism. "Leslie is truly a
wonderful professional
because she cares about
quality," Mrs. Bremer says.
"She makes it all so painless
and easy for me. It's magic
what she does with fabric and
color. She knows how to make
a show look good . ."

Trained in home economics
education and interior
design, Mrs. Advokat says she
"sort of fell into" costume
designing. She has worked in
the field for four years and
began by making costumes
for her 11-year-old son Evan
who is active in community
theatre. Evan plays a news-
paper reporter in Keep Your
Sunny Side Up.
She went on to professional
costuming assignments with
the Peanut Butter Players,
the Lathrup Youth Theatre

and . the Dearborn Youth
Theatre. Keep Your Sunny
Side Up is her second produc-
tion for the Lunch Bunch
Players.
Mrs. Advokat does a lot of
legwork to track down
costume material and pat-
terns. She is "very picky" and
spends a lot of time in fabric
stores in search of the right
colors and fabrics that create
the appropriate mood.
She designs some of the
costumes from scratch, and
others by using patterns. She
also buys or borrows existing
clothes and modifies them.
Mrs. Advokat sews many of
her own costumes. For larger
productions, she hires seam-
stresses to assist with the
work.
"A lot of times, if it's an
unusual costume, I design it
as I'm making it. So I'll occa-
sionally sit on the floor with
fabric and try different things
until it works. Sometimes you
put patterns together, some-
times you put different
clothes together and add
things to them and some-
times you just have to experi-
ment."
Mrs. Advokat, of Southfield,
often works steadily for three
to five weeks prior to the
opening of a show. "I find it
very rewarding. It's a lot of
hard work for a short period
of time and that's hard .. .

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

65