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Design process: Cast of Costumers!
Nov. 1st, 2010 03:09 pmIn a couple of earlier posts, i discussed the project of batik creation for some fabric we need for the upcoming production of David Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, for which i'm serving as costume designer. This is the first mainstage show i'll design for PlayMakers, so in and of itself that's pretty exciting and new.
I mentioned a bit of the design process in those, but now that the show's in full swing in the shop, i thought i'd make a series of posts about the design process itself. This is partly inspired by the undergraduate costume design class to whom i'm guest-lecturing today, and partly by a conversation i had with my mom on the phone this past weekend, in which i realized that things i take for granted as common knowledge just aren't!
First i should offer the caveat that the structure varies show-to-show because our costume shop functions as a laboratory for our Costume Production graduate program. The scene shop is similarly structured, as is the professional actors training program for acting grads. The costume shop runs in such a way that, ideally, the students learn the functions of different positions in the professional world on a practical basis--our actors are Equity, our budgets are such that the fabrics bought for the made-to-order costumes are good quality, the theatre operates as a LORT theatre, and the directors and designers may be in-house (like me and the sound designer this time) or they may come from out of state (like our director from LA and our scenic designer from NYC this time). The student positions rotate--one show's draper is another show's design assistant and so forth.
For this show, as the costume designer i have a few folks with whom i directly interact the most.
Judy Adamson is costume director and head of the graduate program. She is essentially the one to whom a designer directs overarching big questions--for example, which of these costumes can we make and which should we buy or find? She also observes all the fittings to make sure that the graduate students involved in them have the opportunity to question their processes when adjusting garments for fit, and to advise the designer about how to physically get something done that the designer wants aesthetically.
Adam M. Dill is Judy's assistant, and the de facto "Shop Manager" for the costume complex. He monitors workflow and inventory, orders supplies and tracks the budget, supervises the students and overhire workers, and so forth. He helps track down rental and purchase options for specific costume items as well--for example, last week he ordered a mess of shoes in specific styles, in our actors' sizes. Adam's the one who directly interfaces with stage management in terms of scheduling fittings and sending requested items into rehearsal and troubleshooting any problems or questions that come up in that realm.
Adrienne Corral, a first-year graduate student, is assigned the position of Assistant to the Designer. In the context of our shop, this means that she also winds up assisting Adam as well, in taking care of such organizational things as rental tracking, setting up the show's costume rack labels, maintaining a "bible" of show-specific information, and assembling the boutique. (What does that mean? I'll get to it in a minute!) She does shopping and returns, created a display of the renderings and costume plot for the shop staff, and sometimes steps in to lend a hand with any part of the team who's behind--hemming a skirt or painting a mask or whatever.
Shanna I. Parks, a third-year graduate student, is the Draper on this show. She leads many of the other grad students (who work as first-hands/stitchers) in the construction of the costumes. Shanna makes the patterns by drafting or draping, and determines the means by which they will be constructed. The first-hands/stitchers follow her lead in putting them together. In this program, the students are only assigned a draping position in the final show of the season during their first year, and then as needed in their second and third years. In their third year, they are given a show on which to serve as solo draper--this is that show for Shanna.
Claire Fleming, a second-year graduate student, is the Production Crafts Artisan. This is what i would normally be in charge of, crafts, but there's no way that I could do everything required of a designer *&* handle the crafts on a show of this size. This is actually a blessing in disguise, so to speak, for the grad students because it allows one of them--in this case, Claire--the opportunity to do be in charge of the crafts. So Claire is making a few hats and headdresses and tracking all the crafts notes through the shop.
Right now, we're at the point where Shanna has draped and drafted the patterns for the costumes we're making, and her first-hands are cutting and assembling them for fittings at the end of the week. All of the crafts projects are in various stages of progress, and Adam and Adrienne have assembled a boutique. It's time to see what sort of options we have to be pulled from our own stock!
A boutique is a concentrated, carefully chosen selection of costume stock. PlayMakers entire costume collection is tens of thousands of pieces, the majority of which are the wrong period, color, or size for our production. When a designer begins work on a show, ideally the manager and the assistant have the time to create a boutique--to go into our stock and weed through it, pulling out only the pieces that are in the appropriate time period, color palette, in sizes that fit someone in the show, and correspond to the renderings/research. In this way, you save the designer the time of wading through the enormity of stock, and streamline the process a bit.
The designer (that's me!) then goes into the boutique and chooses pieces s/he likes best for particular characters, and it's time to schedule fittings to see what actually looks good on the cast members. We'll also know where there are holes in what we have available from our own stock, and what we've purchased new. I'll have a list of what we're still missing, and we'll then see what we can find from rental sources and partner institutions with whom we have mutual borrowing agreements!
I mentioned a bit of the design process in those, but now that the show's in full swing in the shop, i thought i'd make a series of posts about the design process itself. This is partly inspired by the undergraduate costume design class to whom i'm guest-lecturing today, and partly by a conversation i had with my mom on the phone this past weekend, in which i realized that things i take for granted as common knowledge just aren't!
First i should offer the caveat that the structure varies show-to-show because our costume shop functions as a laboratory for our Costume Production graduate program. The scene shop is similarly structured, as is the professional actors training program for acting grads. The costume shop runs in such a way that, ideally, the students learn the functions of different positions in the professional world on a practical basis--our actors are Equity, our budgets are such that the fabrics bought for the made-to-order costumes are good quality, the theatre operates as a LORT theatre, and the directors and designers may be in-house (like me and the sound designer this time) or they may come from out of state (like our director from LA and our scenic designer from NYC this time). The student positions rotate--one show's draper is another show's design assistant and so forth.
For this show, as the costume designer i have a few folks with whom i directly interact the most.
Judy Adamson is costume director and head of the graduate program. She is essentially the one to whom a designer directs overarching big questions--for example, which of these costumes can we make and which should we buy or find? She also observes all the fittings to make sure that the graduate students involved in them have the opportunity to question their processes when adjusting garments for fit, and to advise the designer about how to physically get something done that the designer wants aesthetically.
Adam M. Dill is Judy's assistant, and the de facto "Shop Manager" for the costume complex. He monitors workflow and inventory, orders supplies and tracks the budget, supervises the students and overhire workers, and so forth. He helps track down rental and purchase options for specific costume items as well--for example, last week he ordered a mess of shoes in specific styles, in our actors' sizes. Adam's the one who directly interfaces with stage management in terms of scheduling fittings and sending requested items into rehearsal and troubleshooting any problems or questions that come up in that realm.
Adrienne Corral, a first-year graduate student, is assigned the position of Assistant to the Designer. In the context of our shop, this means that she also winds up assisting Adam as well, in taking care of such organizational things as rental tracking, setting up the show's costume rack labels, maintaining a "bible" of show-specific information, and assembling the boutique. (What does that mean? I'll get to it in a minute!) She does shopping and returns, created a display of the renderings and costume plot for the shop staff, and sometimes steps in to lend a hand with any part of the team who's behind--hemming a skirt or painting a mask or whatever.
Shanna I. Parks, a third-year graduate student, is the Draper on this show. She leads many of the other grad students (who work as first-hands/stitchers) in the construction of the costumes. Shanna makes the patterns by drafting or draping, and determines the means by which they will be constructed. The first-hands/stitchers follow her lead in putting them together. In this program, the students are only assigned a draping position in the final show of the season during their first year, and then as needed in their second and third years. In their third year, they are given a show on which to serve as solo draper--this is that show for Shanna.
Claire Fleming, a second-year graduate student, is the Production Crafts Artisan. This is what i would normally be in charge of, crafts, but there's no way that I could do everything required of a designer *&* handle the crafts on a show of this size. This is actually a blessing in disguise, so to speak, for the grad students because it allows one of them--in this case, Claire--the opportunity to do be in charge of the crafts. So Claire is making a few hats and headdresses and tracking all the crafts notes through the shop.
Right now, we're at the point where Shanna has draped and drafted the patterns for the costumes we're making, and her first-hands are cutting and assembling them for fittings at the end of the week. All of the crafts projects are in various stages of progress, and Adam and Adrienne have assembled a boutique. It's time to see what sort of options we have to be pulled from our own stock!
A boutique is a concentrated, carefully chosen selection of costume stock. PlayMakers entire costume collection is tens of thousands of pieces, the majority of which are the wrong period, color, or size for our production. When a designer begins work on a show, ideally the manager and the assistant have the time to create a boutique--to go into our stock and weed through it, pulling out only the pieces that are in the appropriate time period, color palette, in sizes that fit someone in the show, and correspond to the renderings/research. In this way, you save the designer the time of wading through the enormity of stock, and streamline the process a bit.
The designer (that's me!) then goes into the boutique and chooses pieces s/he likes best for particular characters, and it's time to schedule fittings to see what actually looks good on the cast members. We'll also know where there are holes in what we have available from our own stock, and what we've purchased new. I'll have a list of what we're still missing, and we'll then see what we can find from rental sources and partner institutions with whom we have mutual borrowing agreements!
