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September 30, 2007
Costume Characters: How to Run a Low-Effort, High-Return, Way-Fun Program
I started doing programs featuring someone running around in a book character costume back when I was at the Maplewood Library. At first, I foolishly wore the costume myself, but I quickly learned that coercing a volunteer to wear it was a much better idea. In the ensuing years, I’ve run programs featuring characters including Spot, Maisy, Winnie the Pooh & Tigger, Corduroy, Madeline, Clifford, the Cat in the Hat, Mudge, Biscuit, Rosemary Wells’ Max, the Stinky Cheese Man, Frog & Toad, Curious George, and the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. At WPL, we usually run three sessions of a character program in a week and have between 50-100 participants in each.
How Do I Get a Costume?
We get most of ours through Costume
Specialists. Most of their costumes are the big Disney-style ones, and they are magic. There is no rental fee, but you do have to pay for shipping, which, in most cases, is $120 and a bargain at that. If you want your choice of costume, you need to book early, as in I just booked my costume for April 2008 (the pig from If You Give a Pig a Pancake). There are other sources of costumes, of course. I bought a Cat in the Hat costume years ago and have gotten a ton of use out of it. One of the members of the Children’s Department made us a Clifford costume that we love. We’ve had positive experiences with a couple local outfits here in Rochester. One of the advantages of Costume Specialists is simplicity; they’re used to working with libraries and you get to keep the costume for a week. Most stores are used to renting by the day, which can get expensive if you want to do programs over a period of several days, although many are also willing to give libraries a price break.
A Note on Planning Ahead
Planning ahead helps ensure you get the costume you want, but it also gives you time do so some important planning. I recommend giving yourself at least six months. The nanosecond you book a costume, make sure you buy brand-new, multiple copies of books featuring the character. Also consider stocking up on other items featuring the character: book/cd packs, movies, games. If someone makes bookmarks and posters featuring the character, consider investing. If you have lots of new materials featuring a character in the Children’s Room, your users are going to become more aware of that character and be more interested in coming to the program when it happens. They’re also ALL going to want to check out books featuring the character in the weeks leading up to and after your event.
Who Will Wear the Costume?
Find a volunteer.
There are a couple important things to consider when finding your volunteer. You want to make sure you’re getting one who is truly interested in wearing the costume (as opposed to one who is only volunteering for the program because Mom is forcing him/her to), and you also want to make sure you’ve found one who will fit in the costume. Costumes come with recommended size ranges; make sure you pay attention to them.
Whatever type of event you’re planning, you want to get your volunteer into the costume about a half hour before the event begins to give him or her time to get used to moving around in it. Costumes can be heavy, bulky, and can limit one’s ability to hear and see, all of which takes some getting used to. Once your volunteer is comfortable, have him/her take the costume off for a while so they can breathe. Costumes, especially ones that have a head, get really, really hot. Make sure your volunteer gets water and breaks. It’s also a good idea to assign a second volunteer to be responsible for staying with the costume-wearer at all times. (Sometimes the volunteers will alternate wearing the costumes, which is great, too.) The second volunteer can help the character navigate the room, can speak for the character if the costume has a head, and can discourage small children from pushing or pulling on the character. Safety first and all that.
Tomorrow: More on Planning a Costume Character Event
Posted by adrienne at September 30, 2007 09:55 AM