Sydney DeBriel with the costumes from 'Anne of Green Gables'
When Anne Shirley arrives at Green Gables with little more than her imagination, she is chasing dreams that don’t always match her reality. She longs for beauty, friendship and acceptance, yet must learn to face loss, responsibility and the slow, painful work of growing up. On Barter Theatre’s Gilliam Stage, her transformation is told not only through story and song but also through costumes that highlight her growth from a dreamer to a young woman.
For costume designer Sydney DeBriel, the project began with a deeply personal connection.
“When I read the book for the first time, I wept,” she says. “I was always very deep in my imagination, so seeing myself reflected in the story was really special for me.” To capture that feeling of childlike wonder, DeBriel spent her summer reconnecting with the world of Anne Shirley. By immersing herself fully in Anne’s life, she was able to thread the way Anne sees the world into her designs.
That sense of wonder is woven into every stitch. Anne’s earliest looks, sewn by her adoptive mother, Marilla, are plain and practical, yet DeBriel imagined Anne making them her own.
“Yes, Marilla has provided her with this plain dress, but Anne has taken the time to sew on some little decorative flair to make it her own,” she explains. Those small touches become more than trim and thread; they serve as Anne’s quiet rebellion towards the simplicity of her life.
The turning point comes with the iconic puffed sleeve dress, a gift from her adoptive father Matthew, and Anne’s first moment of truly feeling seen. “It’s Matthew’s last gift to Anne, so it represents all the things he loves about Anne and the way she sees the world.”
For this look, DeBriel envisioned the gown not as the plain brown described in the novel, but as something radiant. “We’ve taken this beautiful, iridescent silk in shades of green and gold to represent the “White Way of Delight” and the “Lake of Shining Waters,” all places that are incredibly special to Anne,” DeBriel explained. From that moment on, Anne’s palette blooms into purples, teals and florals, reflecting her growth into the fullness of who she is meant to be.
But behind that beauty lies resourcefulness and grit, as creating these looks was both an artistic and practical challenge. With access to more than 15,000 square feet of costume archives, DeBriel made it a priority to reimagine and rebuild pieces already housed in the theater. By repurposing fabrics and garments, the team honored Barter’s tradition of resourcefulness while crafting something entirely new, a philosophy Anne herself might appreciate.
The quick changes, however, required their own kind of artistry. “Anne never leaves the stage for long, some changes are less than 50 seconds,” DeBriel says. Because every change is a race against the clock, each piece is “quick-rigged” with snaps and Velcro, allowing the costume shop, wardrobe team and actors to work in sync to make the transformations seamless. The famous puffed sleeve dress proved to be one of the trickiest, meticulously choreographed to music so the magic could happen in real time.
For DeBriel, every design decision was rooted in the truth of Anne’s journey. “I wanted to make sure that how Anne Shirley sees the world is at the forefront of this design,” she says. In that way, the costumes are more than fabric; they are symbols of Anne’s spirit. They carry her mistakes and triumphs, her friendships and resilience, and her refusal to stop dreaming, even when the world told her otherwise.
Barter Theatre’s production of “Anne of Green Gables: The Musical” runs through Nov. 2 on Gilliam Stage in Abingdon, Virginia. Tickets can be purchased online at www.bartertheatre.com or by calling the Box Office at 276-628-3991.
