Costumer juggles mouse, cookies, wrestlers as she pursues doctorate

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Jun 21, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Well, at least she had to create only one costume for The Mouse.

OK, make that two, because there has to be a costume for The Mouse and one for his reflection.

Suzanne Chambliss’ story is different when it comes to Rob Van Dam. He’s a wrestler, which means he’s a big guy.

“And you have to have multiples of everything when you’re shooting a movie, because the scenes are shot out of sequence,” Chambliss said. “So, if a costume is bloodied in one scene, you have to have a clean one for the next.”

So, The Mouse’s world is a little easier. Sure, he requires lots of props, some of which are incorporated into the costume. But he’ll wear the same outfit throughout the duration of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Better make that she, because The Mouse is being played by actress Ashleigh Gray Dowden.

The play opened June 19 in the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts and continues through June 28.

And Chambliss? She’s the costume designer, straight off the set of Wrong Side of Town to the Manship stage.

Oh wait, you’ve never heard of Wrong Side of Town? Well, not many people have.

Yet.

It’s a movie with a wrestler cast recently filmed in Baton Rouge. It’s feature length, though it’ll be produced directly on DVD.

But it won’t stop there.

Producers liked the story idea so much that three more feature length, direct-to-DVD movies are in production. Which means Chambliss is going to be quite busy in the next few months.

All the while working on her dissertation to complete her doctorate’s degree in the LSU Department of Theatre.