Entertainment
19 February, 2026
Critical theatre role for costume group
MALANDA Theatre Company is renowned for putting on amazing productions for the Tablelands community, but behind the scenes, a group of women have an important role in making the productions a success.
Led by the talented Jan Hannam, a group of ladies meet week in, week out in a volunteer capacity to undertake the phenomenal task of costume management for the theatre company.
The women include Gill Harrington, Laurel Eden, Lorraine Gatti, Juanita Henry, Debbie Davis, Geraldine Borella, Katrin Schrieber, Karen Huggett, Frances Langtree, Anne Bowater, and Kirsty Mawer.
When a production is started, the group works with the production team to pull items from the collection for the cast. They also design and create individual character costume elements and assist with the dressing of the cast during rehearsals and shows.
Once a production has closed, they repair and launder the costumes before sorting and storing them.
Even without a production on the calendar, the ladies congregate to curate and store the extensive collection of costumery that has been accumulated since the theatre’s inception.
The ladies undertake this mammoth task with pride, teamwork and a wicked sense of humour.
Over the last 18 months the team has been working on consolidating the collection while introducing new pieces that have been kindly donated from various individuals and community groups.
While they’re eager to receive new items and grow the costume options, space is limited, meaning some items have to be removed.
In 2025, during a welcomed coffee break, the costume ladies discussed various options for the items no longer required. The first of the pop-up stalls was scheduled and many pieces of clothing, costumes, vintage wedding dresses, bags and some props were sold off for a gold coin donation.
Some items were donated to charities and other community organisations for specific programs, but what remained were things unable to be sold or donated due to their deteriorated condition.
It was decided that sending these items to landfill was not an option for the group, who are passionate about maintaining a sustainable community organisation.
Costume team member Karen Huggett suggested donating the items to Upparel, an Australian textile recovery and recycling company which takes unwanted items and turns them into fibre fill and their revolutionary product, UPtex, that is used in signage, packaging and homewares.
So far, more than 55kg of unwanted and unusable clothing, fabric, belts and shoes have been donated to Upparel with more items destined to be sent this year.
The ladies have also commenced more pop-up stalls to sell off usable costumes, fabric and clothing that have been culled from the collection.
Setting up in front of the Majestic Theatre in Malanda, the proceeds from the sales will go to funding the postage to send the unusable items to Upparel.
