A nonprofit rental program run by Theatre Development Fund since 1974 and stocked largely by donations from Broadway, touring and regional productions. The collection occupies a 16,000 square foot space at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens and holds roughly 100,000 pieces, from Egyptian through the late twentieth century. Nonprofits, schools, colleges and religious groups pay deeply discounted rates; commercial productions pay considerably more. In a typical year it dresses hundreds of productions in dozens of states.
It suits a group with a designer who wants to pull garments by hand and accepts that a real Broadway piece sometimes needs a repair. Staff will pull to a plot or a measurement sheet for a fee and photograph the choices before shipping. Visits happen by appointment booked at least a day ahead, slots are limited, two visitors at a time, so a last minute raid is out of the question. Dry cleaning is billed on top of the rental.
Address: 34-12 36th Street, Lower Level Suite 1, Astoria, NY 11106
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