Creating a character
Both Lorry McMahon and Jan Marietta were taught to sew at a young age and spent years creating clothing as a hobby. But, it wasn’t until their own children became involved in high school theater in the late 1990s that they considered fabricating a business from their passion.
“We were working on the costumes, and Jan looked at me and said, ‘This is what I want to do when I retire,'” recalled McMahon. “I said, ‘This is what I’m going to do when I retire.'”
The lifelong friends didn’t quite make it to retirement before launching Opening Night Costumes, renting their extensive collection for use in the theater, re-enactments, period weddings, history days, Shakespeare festivals, pageants and Halloween.
“We can do whatever anybody asks,” said McMahon.
For McMahon, a former manager of the Washington & Jefferson book store, and Marietta, a nurse with Burgettstown Area School District, success occurred more quickly than they anticipated.
“We were thinking about (launching a business) but we hadn’t started,” McMahon said. “Then things started to fall into place.”
When local costume maker and collector Kathleen Mitchell retired in 2007, she asked the pair if they’d like to purchase some of her inventory. They took her up on the offer, found a space from which to operate on East Maiden Street, Washington, and moved in.
Soon, they were busy providing costumes for high school and local productions, doing alterations and selling pieces for the annual Penn’s Colony Festival.
“Sewing is a lost art,” said McMahon. “People are always in need of someone to do alterations.”
As McMahon and Marietta added original pieces to their inventory, the Washington shop became too small.
“We were bursting at the seams,” McMahon said.
In 2008, they moved to a larger store in Monongahela, where the 23,000-square-foot space could accommodate their growing collection. But the duo found themselves having to load every piece that could be used in a show to the high schools for fittings. They needed a more central location, so, in 2011, the year McMahon retired, they moved back to Washington.
Casts now come to their shop in the Freedom Center at 31 East Chestnut St. for fittings.
So far, McMahon and Marietta have provided costumes for about 30 different stage productions.
“If we don’t have something in house, we make it,” said McMahon.
McMahon wouldn’t venture a guess as to how many pieces are available, but knows exactly where to find what she is looking for. Everything is sorted by theme, and then by size.
McMahon said the shop has been called the best-kept secret in town.
“Our prices are very reasonable. We don’t charge by the day, just by event,” she said. “So we have students coming in for history days and book reports. We’ve done Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and … anything you could think of.”
There are costumes of princesses, cowboys, 1920s flappers, Disney characters and animals. McMahon’s favorite pieces to create are bonnets for period costumes.
“They’re adorable,” she said, holding one up.
The store is open by appointment only. For information, visit www.openingnightcostumes.com or call 724-344-9223.