A TREASURE trove of long-lost theatrical costumes, locked away for more than 12 years, was causing a headache for a local builder keen to redevelop an old building in Fyshwick.
Who owned them? Because if he didn’t sort it soon, they would all be lost to the tip.
“CityNews” was alerted to the find by Rebekah Griffiths, owner of Material Pleasures, who had been contacted by the building owner and was equally perplexed about the hundreds of outfits.
We visited the musty room, packed with boxes and strewn outfits.
Amid the mess, we came across a T-shirt with a small chest logo of the Canberra Ice Skating Club. But further investigation revealed that the club had been defunct for about a decade.
We then called the ACT Ice Skating Association, which serendipitously is run by some of the original Canberra Ice Skating Club members and alerted them to the find.
It turns out that the hundreds of costume items had been packed in 1999 into the store room in a building adjacent to the former M16 Artspace.
ACTISA president and former Canberra Ice Skating Club member Angelique Clyde-Smith said the costumes were used as part of big end-of-year productions put together by former World Champion ice skater Reg Park for Canberra Ice Skating Club.
She said the Christmas ice shows included ice skaters from “tiny tots through to adults” and some included elaborate pyrotechnics.
The themes included Mexican, Hawaiian, Hollywood, Spanish, “under the sea” and Christmas.
ACTISA has now collected the costumes and catalogued the two thirds wanted for future ice-skating shows.
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