Annie get your sewing machine

Linda Rawls sorts through the costumes for ‘Annie Get Your Gun.’ The musical continues through Aug. 10 with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. at The Playbox at Sonoma Charter School. Visit hoochidoo.com or call 707.332.0621 for details. Photo by Ryan Lely.

Mark Twain once said, “The clothes make the man,” and in Linda Rawls’ case, they also make the show. Rawls, a local costume designer, has made hundreds of shows come to life in her 26 years as a designer, and most recently brought the Wild West front and center for the Hoochi-Doo Production of “Annie Get Your Gun,” now playing at The Playbox at Sonoma Charter School.
A former financial aid representative for UC Berkeley, Rawls had a surprisingly different beginning from that of most designers. Like the majority of dedicated mothers, Rawls was active in her eight-year-old son’s theater productions, and when a costume designer abandoned an opera her son was set to sing in, Rawls found herself volunteering to fill in.
In preparation for “Annie Get Your Gun”, Rawls’ home is a whirlwind of leather, feathers, plaids, petticoats and cowboy hats. Her garage resembles an elaborate closet and boasts practically every costume one could ever think of, as a half-finished headdress for the character of Sitting Bull sits on countertop amidst sketches and scissors, and Rawls, who once played Annie Oakley herself in a different production, has put her attention to detail in high gear for this production, not only delighting the eye, but also creating a deep, subliminal story. “There is a language to the clothes you wear,” Rawls explained. “It doesn’t matter if you realize it or not, it’s there. My job is to give clothing a new life, make it say the right things.”  And indeed she does, tweaking colors, fabrics and accessories to reveal a character’s true motives, identity, values, and importance. Rawls’ job is not merely about clothing, but rather a psychological experiment on the audience. “Costumes have to do everything. Think about it. A show can have no scenery, but with a woman’s dress or a man’s hat, you can decipher the time and place in an instant,” she said.