MSMT Aquires SMT Costumes, Avaliable To Rent In 2009

Maine State Music Theatre (MSMT) has purchased the entire costume stock from Seaside Music Theater of Daytona Beach, Florida and will be making those costumes available for rental to other regional theatres and local organizations. The costume stock, valued at $654,000, includes high-quality costumes for approximately ninety musicals and will be available for rental starting in the spring of 2009. MSMT plans to expand its current website to include photos and costume rental information.

The exact date the costumes will arrive in Maine is not yet known. Parties interested in costume rental information should check www.msmt.org throughout April and May for updates.
Seaside Music Theater had been a popular place to rent costumes among professional music theaters for years. Their recent closure worried many in the costuming industry that Seaside's costume stock would be split up and no longer available for use. MSMT was able to purchase the entire stock at a reduced price in order to keep it intact. The collection includes costumes for many of today's hottest musicals including "Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST," "CATS," "SWEENEY TODD," and "CHICAGO" just to name a few. Access to costume rentals for shows such as these is vital to regional theatres that have neither budget nor time to create such specialty costumes. Many of the costumes are rigged for special effects necessary to a storyline.

MSMT will be transporting the costumes from Daytona Beach to Brunswick this spring and has secured climate-controlled storage with Waterfront Maine, owners of Fort Andross in Brunswick. MSMT will use Fort Andross as the location from which to manage the costume rental business. This extension of services to the theatre industry is expected to provide MSMT with an additional $120,000 annually in revenues. MSMT currently has a large economic impact on the local Brunswick economy and the additional monies will enable them to continue that impact during these difficult economic times. Also, MSMT has hired two additional staff members to manage the complicated tasks of shipping, repairing and maintaining the large volume of costumes. The job creation is important to MSMT as an additional way to help stimulate the local economy during the current recession.