Local883 Cleveland Wardrobe

What a great time we had with the lovely crew and cast of it was truly a Grand Spec from the puppets to the costumes to the acrobatics! Plus we had one of our own on the road with it!!

Congratulations to Ray Zander on his well deserved retirement. We hope you enjoy all your time to travel and spend time with you husband and dogs.

Ray came to Cleveland from the NYC theater scene to head up the Costume Shop for the original Cleveland Ballet Costume Shop, begun by Ernie (Ian) Horvath & Dennis Nahat. He took over for Claudia Lynch and worked in that position for 20 years. After this tenure he was fortunately asked to join Local Wardrobe 883 which was a wonderful transition to keep working with the incredible local, talented theater technicians for another 20 years.

From Ray:

My favorite memories are the rebuilding of the State Theater Stage House with input from both Cleveland Ballet & Opera, the opening of Blue Suede Shoes designed by Bob Mackie, as well as landmark films shot in Cleveland: ‘Christmas Story’,
‘The Avengers’, and
‘Avengers - Winter Soldier.

There are countless memories working with the incredible talent that comes thru Cleveland every year with the Broadway Series thanks to the incredible work of Playhouse Square which literally saved this group of theaters from the wrecking ball and turned it around into a thriving theater complex second to none in this country.

I will miss working with all of my fellow union memebers and especially the officers that have made this Union strong, including BA’s Julie Yanert, Diane Burke, Stephanie Sweigard & Joanna Anthony. The new generation has very broad shoulders to stand on to lead our Union into the future. I wish them well.

What a joy!! We wish it would have been here longer!! Such a great team to work with from the supervisors, to the cast, and to the designers. It was great for some of us to get to work with costume designer again. You may have seen her work and in the past.