About Provost Fabrication

History of Provost Fabrication

Provost Fabrication was formed in 2025 from the three divisions of Character Translations, Inc., which was established in 1984. These three divisions are: Character Translations (1984), specializing in the creation and maintenance of walk-around characters, mascots, and puppets; Provost Displays (1960), an industry leader in vacuum-formed scenic elements for the entertainment, attraction, and display industries; and Your Broadway Your Way (2013), which focused on providing rental sets and costumes for elementary to middle school productions.

The extensive history of our company began in 1984 when Ardia Dayton founded Character Translations, Inc. in New York, NY. With an elite background in fashion, which led her to a career in costuming for the likes of Ringling Brothers Circus, Disney on Ice, and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades, she decided to focus her passion for creativity on walk-around characters and mascots. One of Character Translations’ first large-scale projects was for Kellogg’s, where they were tasked with creating hundreds of Tony the Tiger (they’re greeeeeaaatttt) and Garfield costumes for promotional appearances. To this day, Tony and Garfield are considered the godfathers of our shop.

In 1986, with a large order of Tony costumes, Ardia had the idea to create the headpiece using vacuum-formed plastic—an innovation that was new to the character costume industry. This led her to meet Chic Provost, the founder and owner of Provost Displays. Provost Displays was formed in 1960 in New York, NY, and quickly became a leading supplier for many TV productions filmed in the city, providing countless brick, stone, and molding panels. There wasn’t a soap opera during this time that didn’t feature Provost Display panels. Always thinking ahead, Chic, with his vacuum-formed panels and countless design patterns, had the brilliant idea to approach Ardia about purchasing Provost Displays. Although still a young company, Ardia decided to take the leap, purchase Provost Displays, and merge her two companies under the name Character Translations, Inc. They operated out of New York City until 1996, establishing themselves as reliable, efficient, and client-oriented, working for the likes of countless movies and television productions, the NFL, Macy’s Holiday Windows, and theatres across the country.

In 1996, Character Translations made the bold decision to move to Norristown, PA, a move fueled by being closer to Ardia’s hometown of Philadelphia. Fast forward through many years and countless projects to 2013, with the development of Your Broadway Your Way. Character Translations had a long-standing relationship with Music Theatre International (MTI) and created, maintained, and shipped their Audrey II and Avenue Q puppets. With this relationship ever-expanding, the decision was made to create Your Broadway Your Way as a division to provide rental sets and costumes for MTI’s Broadway Jr. productions. With Character Translations and Provost Displays’ extensive experience in scenery and costumes for both professional and amateur theatre, it was the perfect blend to offer the same high-quality service to students across the United States. Our rentals can be found on stages as far as Hawaii and have even ventured abroad to Mexico and Canada.

This brings us to 2025 and the formation of Provost Fabrication. In January of 2024, Ardia brought Geno Dayton on board as co-owner of Character Translations, Inc., with dreams of combining the three divisions under one collective name and expanding the services offered. The decision was made to bring everything together. When Ardia purchased Provost Displays, Chic Provost made her promise that the Provost name would always be a part of the company. As a company committed to keeping its word, we did just that. Provost Fabrication was born, uniting our costume and character-making, stock and custom vacuum forming, and theatrical rentals under one name. While combining all of our divisions under one name, we also decided that “fabrication” would be a key part of our identity moving forward. Over decades of growth, we realized we had become much more than costumes and vacuum forming. We had developed into a full fabrication shop, adding scenic painting, CNC routing, sculpture, fiberglass, and full prop buildouts to our repertoire. That’s why Provost Fabrication is ready for your next project, whatever that may be!