UCF Theatre's 3rd Annual Costume Sale brings in bargain hunters

Bargain shoppers and creative minds tore through boxes upon boxes of clothes and props looking for the perfect Halloween ensemble at the UCF Theatre's 3rd Annual Costume Sale.

Students and non-students alike raided the Small Design Room of the Theatre in the Performing Arts Center for the one-day sale of mostly custom-made props and clothing used in different theater productions put on at the UCF Theatre.

"This is our third year in a row of doing a costume sale at Halloween time and what we do is go through our stock and look for things that we don't think will be used again for theater productions and then we offer them for sale and then the money goes to making new costumes," Dan Jones, costume shop manager, said.

Starting at the beginning of the year, Jones and his team go through thousands of pieces and check if they can find another use for them, if not they are put up for sale to the public.

"We have things here that you cannot possibly get at a Halloween store, and if you found them at a Halloween store they would be a hundred dollars or more," Jones said.

By keeping most of the items under $10, Jones was hoping to draw in those last-minute bargain hunters and it seemed to work.

"We actually had people lined up to get into the door when we got here to set up this morning," Jones said.

One of them was a customer who Jones recognized from last year. He was unable to get everything he was looking for the last time around.

Tim Smolinski, 20, was one of the early birds who showed up for the sale shortly after 8 a.m. in hopes of finding a costume for Halloween.

Drawing from his love for musical theater, Smolinski, a theater studies major was looking to dress up as Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.

"One of my friends was throwing out costume ideas and I happened to be listening to the Jeckyll and Hyde soundtrack at the time … and then I thought ‘What if I did Jeckyll and Hyde?'"

Unlike Smolinski, Emilio Solares, 21 went into the sale with no clear idea of what he wanted dress up as for Halloween.

Solares, a senior legal studies major went for the more creative route creating an entire costume out of random items such as: medieval body armor, a Don Quixote-inspired helmet and what looked like a holster made out of a cell phone holder.

"I am after all a medieval knight from the future/past/confused modern-day man walking around with stuff on me," Solares said.

Even though he could have went with a more conventional outfit, Solares felt that a costume sale like this provides a much more creative way to put together a costume that might cost way too much at a store.

Armed with the same mentality, Kristin Nguyen, 20 walked into the sale with no clear idea of what she was looking for either.

"I had nothing in mind at all," Nguyen said," I figured something would inspire me in here, I didn't realize I would already have a full costume."

As soon as Nguyen walked into the sale she spotted a full wedding dress hanging on the racks and knew she had to buy it.

"I saw that it looked about my size and how beautiful it was so I just had to grab it," Nguyen said.

All together, Nguyen only paid $13.85 for the dress and a hat and is hoping to pull off a Bride of Frankenstein look or perhaps a Southern Belle.

Nguyen heard about the sale through flyers that were being handed out during Market Day, where as Smolinski and Solares saw the event posted online.

Though all of them were aware of the Theatre Department on campus, Marketing Director for the UCF Theatre Department Heather Gibson still feels like the program could use more visibility.

"We went to Market Day on Wednesday and it was amazing the number of people who walked by our table and said they didn't even know we had a theater on campus," Gibson said.

At the end of the day Jones counted more than 150 individual purchases and is waiting for the total amount of money to be tallied up.

With a sale like this one, Gibson and Jones are both hoping to bring new people out to shows and get them interested in the theater program.

"We're always trying to raise awareness for the department in general and I think it's a shame that so many students don't know, because we are a really good program. We do really good shows and they get a really good price for quality shows that would cost them about as much it would to go see a movie," Jones said.