Check out Theatre UCF’s annual costume sale Friday, Oct. 21, to find what you need to create your new look.

The department will offer a variety of costumes and accessories such as hats, shoes and other items that were created or purchased for past productions. Most items are $1 to $10.

“The exact costumes vary every year, depending on recent shows we’ve done,” said Heather Gibson, marketing director for the School of Performing Arts. “This summer our costume shop manager had time to sort through a lot of back stock, so the sale is bigger than usual.”

Costume shop manager Dan Jones said this is the most items up for grabs in the eight years of the sale.

Some of the items this year are from Kiss of the Spider Woman, about the relationship between two prisoners; Spunk and the Harlem Literati, an adaptation of the play Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston about a 1920s love triangle; and The Most Happy Fella, about an immigrant vineyard owner.

The sale will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center’s Room T-244.

All the proceeds help fund the theatre department’s costume shop and provide a budget for new productions, especially those with students learning to be designers.

The sale is also open to the public. Cash is preferred, but checks will be accepted. No credit cards can be accepted.

Featuring one-of-a-kind costumes, the sale has become popular with people seeking unique costumes for the holiday. Full costumes can be purchased or buyers can creatively build an original concept from the many pieces. The costumes come from a range of productions including the 1950s-themed The Pajama Game, the 1970s-themed Deathtrap, and the No Sex Please, We’re British, as well as a dance concert and an array of productions placed in more recent time periods.

This year, the Theatre UCF costume shop has been busy “zombifying” clothes in preparation for the sale. A popular item among the students working in the costume shop is the selection of “zombified” bridesmaid dresses.

In addition to the zombie costumes, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., members of the Advanced Theatre Makeup class will demonstrate how to apply zombie makeup and prosthetics. The makeup lessons are free and the students will be seeking volunteers for the makeup applications.

Dan Jones, costume shop manager for Theatre UCF, explained why zombies have infested the costume sale this year. “Zombies are a fun, hot thing, especially around this time of year. Plus it will help build the excitement for our upcoming production of Zombie Town, which is a new script and deserves as much excitement as possible,” he said.

Zombie Town: A Documentary Play is a comedy written by Tim Bauer and will run at Theatre UCF starting Nov. 15. “To complete the cycle,” says Jones, “the zombie costumes used in this production will most likely be sold at next year’s sale.”

The Halloween sale is a benefit for the theatre department. The proceeds from the sale go back to the costume shop and augment costume budgets for future productions, particularly those with student designers like the dance concert or graduate thesis productions.

The costume sale is open to the public. Most items are priced at less than $10. Cash is preferred, but checks also will be accepted. Credit cards cannot be used. For directions to the Student Union, visit http://ucfsu.com/directions/. Regular ��AV parking policies will be in effect, so shoppers will need to have a permit to park.

Theatre Ů��AV is a program in the School of Performing Arts at the Ů��AV. The department’s graduate and undergraduate programs focus on providing a competitive edge to theatre artists seeking professional theatre careers, as well as to future creative intellectual leaders. The program offers theatrical presentations year-round to the public at the east Orlando campus. For more information about attending performances call 407-823-1500 or visit www.theatre.ucf.edu.

The Last Night of Ballyhoo chronicles the story of an unconventional Jewish family in Atlanta in 1939. The play follows two 20-something cousins and their family as the cousins juggle school, suitors and the Atlanta premiere of “Gone With the Wind” while preparing for Ballyhoo, a lavish community dance for Jewish families.

The award-winning play was a hit on Broadway, but is rarely performed by university theatre departments because of the wide age range of its characters.

“It’s safe to assume that very often, good plays are not selected to be staged at UCF because of the concern that the characters are simply too old for students to play believably,” said director Tad Ingram.

In some instances, he said, older characters are played by faculty members or graduate students. But the audition process for the play identified a few talented young undergraduate students who he says trusted in their own acting abilities and accepted the challenge of playing older parts.

“In professional theatre, as well as university theatre, it takes a certain kind of actor to pull off playing a person older than himself or herself,” Ingram said. “I also think that it may take a certain kind of play to make such a stretch doable.”

Third-year Acting student Robert Svetlik plays Adolph, a curmudgeonly bachelor in his 40s who is an uncle to the cousins.

For the part, Svetlik takes on a mature Southern dialect, one he imagines someone of Adolph’s age and location might have spoken with. To master his character’s physicality, Svetlik looked to one of his professors for inspiration.

“I studied the way he walks and moves because I liked it and thought it matched with the character,” said Svetlik. “I watched how his arms moved and how he got from place to place, and then practiced in my apartment.”

Svetlik also has help aging his appearance. He grew facial hair for the part, and costumes, makeup and stage lighting help turn him from a 22-year-old into a middle-aged man.

Costumer Dan Jones is using body padding to alter Svetlik’s frame. The padding rounds his shoulders, creates a potbelly and adds bulk to his clothes.

“The costumes complete the transformation of that other world the actors are trying to get to,” Jones said.

Written by Alfred Uhry, The Last Night of Ballyhoo was commissioned for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The play was inspired by the playwright’s memories of growing up in Atlanta and is the second in Uhry’s “Atlanta Trilogy,” all set in the early 1900s. The first is the Driving Miss Daisy and the third is Parade, which Theatre Ů��AV presented in 2008.

The Last Night of Ballyhoo will be performed on the Main Stage of the Performing Arts Center, room 107 of the Theatre building.

Performances will begin at 8 p.m. Jan. 19-21 and Jan. 26-28. Sunday matinees will begin at 2 p.m. on Jan. 22 and Jan. 29.

Ticket prices are $17 for the general public, $15 for seniors and $10 for students with IDs. Group discounts are available. Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office or by calling 407-823-1500.

To learn more about Theatre UCF, visit .

The sale is perfectly time for buyers to find their Halloween costumes. Attendees can expect one-of-a-kind costumes from Into the Woods’ fairy tale characters and nautical attire from the musical Dames at Sea, as well as other theatre garb. Full costumes can be purchased, or buyers can creatively build an original concept from the many pieces.

“Witches, zombies, fairies, drag queens…if you can think of it, we probably have it,” said Dan Jones, the costume shop manager at Theatre UCF.

“The Halloween sale is great for people looking for a costume, but it also benefits the theatre department,” added Theatre Department Associate Chair Kristina Tollefson. “The proceeds from the sale go back to the costume shop to help us create costumes for future productions, especially those with student designers.”

The costume sale is open to the public. Most items are priced at less than $10. Cash is preferred, but checks also will be accepted. Credit cards cannot be used.

For directions to the Theatre Building, visit the Theatre UCF website at .

Theatre Ů��AV is a program in the School of Performing Arts at the Ů��AV. The department’s graduate and undergraduate programs focus on providing a competitive edge to theatre artists seeking professional theatre careers, as well as to future creative intellectual leaders. The program offers theatrical presentations year-round to the public at the east Orlando campus.