L.A. Opera cleans out the closets

Iris Schneider went to Saturday's parking lot sale of old costumes and props from the L.A. Opera warehouse. "They wheeled 2,500 costumes onto their parking lot and at 10 a.m the race was on. Hundreds of people piled carts, their own rolling racks, and their arms full of waistcoats, doublets, plumed hats, capes and robes. Several hundred more were in a line around the block waiting for their turn," Schneider reports.

Prices ranged from $1 for unmarked garbage bags filled with fabric remnants, to $30 for woolen jumpers worn by chorus in Romeo and Juliet all the way up to $2500 for Placido Domingo’s tunics designed by Robert Wilson.

There were costume junkies—“I have a costume closet,” said actor Marc Raymond, “and it never hurts to have too many costumes in your closet”—to opera enthusiasts and people shopping for small theater troupes.

Timna Pilch is a collector who stages baroque tea parties. Karen Woods, who has gone to the Renaissance Faire for years, was shopping to replace years of collecting when her house burned in the Sylmar fire and she lost everything.

Grace Felschundneff snagged the upside-down boot in Schneider's photo (click on the picture to view it larger.) “I live in costumes," said Felschundneff. "I am laden with costumes. And this” — she rolled her eyes upward — “is just a kick.”

Photo: Iris Schneider