Who Doesn’t Need a Wooden Man?

Just in time for Halloween, University Productions is holding one of its relatively rare sales to purge unwanted parts of its costume collection. On Friday afternoon, one customer was buying a half-dozen hot pink fuzzballs sewn to elastic bands, at 50 cents a pop. “I’m going to wear them in my hair and around my ankles,” he grinned.

Shoes, jackets, dresses and other clothing – vintage or slightly worn– hung from racks amid assorted props, like the life-sized two-dimensional wooden figures from some long-since-shuttered play.

The two-day sale continues Saturday, Oct. 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. “We want to make sure there’s nothing left,” says Renae Skoog, costume stock manager for University Productions. “Everything’s got to go.”

University Productions is part of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance. It provides behind-the-scenes support for student performances, including costumes, props, set design and more. In addition to buying what they need for specific productions, they also accept donations, Skoog says. But every two years or so, they purge their stock, getting rid of things they don’t need or want. They try to hold the sales just before Halloween – customers include students, of course, as well as others in the community who are part of theater groups or who for whatever reason need some glitter-covered high heels.

“Do you guys have spats, by any chance?” a customer asks Skoog while she was talking with The Chronicle.

“We used to have knee-high gaiter spats…” she replies, but apparently those were sold earlier in the day.

Skoog’s goal for the sales is to raise $3,000 – that was the highest amount ever earned in the past. The funds will go toward future productions. They work on a tight budget, Skoog says. For example, they were extremely efficient in creating the “steampunk” style for the upcoming musical, “Ella Minnow Pea.”

And ever the saleswoman, Skoog notes that if shoppers stick around on Saturday, they can also catch a production of “Madmen and Specialists” by African playwright Wole Soyinka. The show starts at 8 p.m. at the Arthur Miller Theatre.

Both the sale and the theater are located in the Walgreen Drama Center, 1226 Murfin Ave., on UM’s North Campus. The entrance to the sale is in back by the parking lot. The theater entrance is in the front of the building.