Design

Little Women

Costume designer 

My design for Little Women communicated the distinct personalities of the four sisters. The most “tomboyish” of the four, Jo, wears a vest instead of a bodice, while Amy, the most fashion conscious, has several different fabrics in her patchwork skirt. The similarities are also important, so I emphasized relationships through color and pattern: Meg and Amy are a team, and so share the cool color palette, while Jo and Beth correspond in a warm color palette.

In this adaptation, three of the performers also portrayed a male counterpart. From a technical perspective, ensuring that each performer would be able to execute the multiple quick changes in the show was important, so each skirt featured snaps and a zipper for easy access, while the changes into their male counterparts were garments that could be added over the bodices. 

During our initial production meeting we decided not to design the show in period: The small performance space would not accommodate the Civil War era hoopskirt necessary for the silhouette of the time. From a narrative perspective, I still had to answer the question: How does this show not being in period costume help advance the storytelling?

The costume guidance came from the script, where it describes the setting as “An attic in time. Perhaps Orchard House. Perhaps your own,” giving the design team an invitation to imagine the world of Little Women anywhere, anytime. This adaptation of Little Women was to be set in the audience’s imagination. Each audience member could evoke that imagined, magical place of their childhood and inhabit it again during the duration of the play and beyond. This collaboration from the audience is a vital piece of theatre magic.

I drafted and built all the patterns in the show: three bodices, two vests and four skirts. The renderings were done on Procreate.

Fairy Grove

Costume designer 

The Fairy Queen dress features lace insertion in the bodice, sleeves and hem, with rouleau strips made of the sash fabric to pull more color into the dress. During the outdoor performance, the light through the lace hem added an airiness to the skirt.

My favorite piece, the crown, is made from dried poppy seed heads and an upside down necklace from a thrift store, reinforced with wire and attached to the stems and headband for structure.

The biggest challenge was how to accomplish the Fairy Queen’s wings in as believable a manner as possible, while still remaining manageable for the performer. The strips of fabric down the back serve to disguise the straps holding the wings on, but also add a magical quality to the garment. The wings are cut from several layers and colors of tulle and double gauze, shaped on the edges with armature wire and beaded on the front and back of the wings for maximum sparkle.

Ragtime

Assistant designer 

Late: A Cowboy Song

Costume designer 

When designing Late: A Cowboy Song, I focused on communicating the idea that each of the characters was from a different world. While Crick is more modern, in a T-shirt and jeans, Red is a more fictitious person, a figure from stories past. Mary is a bridge between the two looks and worlds, a modern interpretation of a cowboy's housewife. I designed Crick and Red's color palettes to clash with each other, to further communicate this idea of difference. Mary, as the bridge, neither disagrees with nor complements Crick's color palette.

I adapted a Mood pattern for the shirts, but the dress is patterned by me. The renderings were done on Procreate.

Haunting Jane Eyre

I had the opportunity to attend a reading of a gothic regency interpretation of Jane Eyre, and these are renderings I drew after. While this isn't technically a full costume design, as these garments will never see the light of day, I did still design most of the production for drawing practice. Many of the costumes feature sheer elements, something I communicated with split renderings and shading.  I used pencil with a few watercolor pencils throughout for color ideas.

Assassins

Costume designer 

The Assassins production required a lot of research because the costumes had to reflect the real people the characters were based on as well as making the costumes as historically accurate as possible. The costumes provided the audience with an intuitive way to keep the characters' place in history clear in the face of the interwoven timeline of the play.

In collaboration with the set and lighting designers, I came up with an overall color story of "muted Americana."  It helped express the underlying melancholy of the characters' whose American Dream has gone wrong.

The Sound of Music