La Bricoleuse

USITT 2010

Are you planning on attending USITT's 2010 National Conference? This is a great year to go, being USITT's 50th anniversary! We'll be there (meaning, several of us from the UNC-CH Costume Production MFA program), and there are a few special events I want to give advance notice on, in which we'll be participating.

The Costume Commission Poster Session is the primary juried competition specifically for theatre costume production innovators at the USITT conference (as opposed to the other competitions like Design Expo for designers in all areas, or Tech Expo for production artists in all disciplines). It's sponsored by the Costume Design and Technology Commission. According to their official blurb, the mission of the Costume Design and Technology Commission is to provide costume design and production practitioners with opportunities to share ideas, to exchange information, to develop professionally and to impact on the future welfare and development of those in our field.

Here's what the CD&T Commission says about the poster session:

At every Annual Conference & Stage Expo as many as twenty scholars and professionals present their posters, each illustrating an innovative or imaginative design or construction technique, a solution to a problem, a classroom or management technique, the results of research, or other ideas, discoveries, or developments in the field of costuming. Poster presentations are widely accepted as meeting the requirements for scholarly publication. Poster presenters also have the opportunity to publish their work in the USITT journal Theatre Design & Technology.

Both myself and Randy Handley (aka handyhatter) had our abstracts accepted to present at the poster session this year!

My presentation will be on the parasol canopy and frame alteration innovations developed for the "Wall of Roses transform into Apple Trees" effect in PlayMakers' production of The Little Prince and its subsequent remount. Because we remounted the show, i had the rare opportunity to refine and streamline the modifications developed the first time around, and perfect the transforming canopy effect. Shanna Parks, a second year masters candidate, served as my crafts assistant on the remounted production last year and assisted in the construction of the final design; she will be a co-presenter at the session with me. Randy's presentation will be an in-depth look at his costume production management database program CAPS (Computer-Aided Paperwork System), for tracking and sorting all the documentation required for costume production, from fitting requests to measurement sheets to tech notes. We've been advised to expect an audience for our presentations of between 200-250 conference attendees. If you're at USITT this spring, drop by and check it out!

Another event i'm really looking forward to is the Member Author Signing session, at which i'll be signing copies of Sticks in Petticoats. I've sent off a review copy to Theatre Design and Technology magazine as well, so hopefully that'll be some advance input about the book from someone besides, you know, the author.


Carnegie Mellon's New Costume Production MFA Program

The ranks of costume production focus MFA programs have just expanded to a dirty dozen! We're glad to welcome Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, to the shortlist of schools offering a production-only focus. Here's the text from the official announcement:

Faculty and Staff members in the Costume Area including Barbara Anderson, Susan Tsu, Brian Russman, and Ken Chu are excited to offer a unique program that seeks to educate students who are sensitive to the interplay between artist and artisan. Our goal is to educate individuals who will be an integral part of the increasingly globalized theatre, television and film communities. We believe in flexibility and collaborative effort and are committed to producing innovators, thinkers, practitioners; artisans who can communicate as intelligent and conducive members of a team.

We are pleased to provide a broad ranging program that emphasizes the development and synthesis of skills including draping, flat patterning, tailoring, fabric painting and dyeing, jewelry creation, millinery, management and mask making, while allowing for investigation in fields of personal interest. All of this is in conjunction with training in the essentials of the world of Costume Design allowing for a wide connection to the theatre community. We encourage self-expression and seek to provide students with a great span of knowledge that will allow further self-exploration.

Join us in forging new territory as we undertake the adventure of marching toward the world of the future in Costume Production.

For more information please contact:

Brian Russman, Assistant Professor of Costume Production
brianr-at-andrew.cmu.edu / 412.268.3648

Pretty exciting! I think it's so new they don't even have a live webpage for it yet, as i couldn't find any link on the CMU Drama Department site about it. Once they have a linkable URL up and running though, i'll be adding them as the twelfth program on my list of links to costume production focus MFA programs in the US.


Kaitlin Fara's Fin de Siecle Clocked Stocking Pattern Published

Remember Kaitlin Fara's fin de siecle clocked stocking pattern she created for one of her footwear projects? Kaitlin researched stocking trends and knitting patterns of the period and, utilizing several obfuscatively-notated period knitting patterns, created a reproduction, transcribing her process into a written knitting pattern that can be read by knitters accustomed to modern knitwear pattern conventions and notations.

Over the break, she published the pattern on Ravelry.com, where it can be purchased for $2.99. (You do need to be a Ravelry member to purchase/view it; if you aren't but would like to be, request an invitation here.) Exciting!

I'm so proud when my students go the extra mile for publication of their work like that, and now, anyone who might need to knit turn-of-the-century clocked stockings has an extant publicly-available resource!


PRC Company Member Kenneth P. Strong

My final bit of news is one of care and concern. PlayMakers patrons and Triangle area theatre enthusiasts will remember the many thrilling performances of our dear company actor, Kenneth P. Strong, who in my time here has portrayed "The Aviator" in The Little Prince, and "Cleon/Helicanus" in Pericles, among many other memorable roles. Ken has bravely battled glioblastoma brain cancer for four(!) incredible years; over the holiday break, he entered a local hospice. Those who would like to leave him a message, well-wishes, and so forth, may sign his guestbook, here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kennethstrong1/guestbook

There is also an option to read updates on his condition, via the main journal that has been set up here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kennethstrong1

Ken taught many many undergraduates as a professor here in the Department of Dramatic Art, and after his diagnosis, would tell them about his condition, his struggle with the cancer, and then would say to them that if they wanted to do something to help, to tell him a joke, because "laughter is the best medicine." If you want to leave a note for him but are unsure what to say, a joke is a good bet.

The title of this post sounds like a lost Jane Austen novel. Ha!

First, the press. We've got a bit of local media attention over our USITT Southeast awards--there's a cool article on the College of Arts and Sciences webpage. So, yay for that.

And, i'm on deck this week over at nicknickleby, where you can read about the beginnings of making a wacky wire-frame hat for Miss LaCreevey, a character with unusual taste in headwear.

Speaking of Nicholas Nickleby, ( Read more... )

It's another week at the helm of nicknickleby for me, so check out my piece on the Victorian dual-trade of milliner-prostitute. (I'm glad those skills are no longer linked to one another!)

I've spent the day working on an article i'm co-authoring for the USITT newsletter Sightlines on the recent symposium, and i thought it'd be a good time to mention some of the other resources sponsored by the USITT Costume Commission, in addition to the annual symposium. Some of these resources are open to anyone, and some are restricted to USITT members only.

The USITT Costume Locator Service is a Yahoo!Group with a costume rental focus. Subscribers can post about particular costumes they are seeking ("Does anyone have the Chrysler Building dress from The Producers for a show going up this spring?"), or promote their rental services. It's maintained and moderated by Kevin McClusky of Mary Washington College, and is for USITT members only.

Dickenson College Costume Storage Solutions Database is a visual archive of storage facilities all over the world. (Link goes to a previous post on the subject, in which i discuss how to navigate the database.) It's recently received funding from the Costume Commission, but can be viewed by anyone with a web browser. And, anyone with a costume storage facility is encouraged to photograph areas of it and submit them! It is maintained by Sherry Harper McCombs.

CoPA, the Commercial Pattern Archive contains over 50,000 scanned images (garments & pattern schematics) from 42,000 commercially produced patterns, dating from 1868 to 1979 and is growing daily. You can purchase the database as a CD set or subscribe to it online. CoPA is housed at the University of Rhode Island and maintained by Project Director Joy Emery; researchers can visit the collection in person, as well (you do not have to be a member of USITT to conduct in-person research, or to subscribe).

The Survey of Costume Design and Technology Programs is a database compiled and maintained by our own Costume Director at UNC-CH, Judy Adamson. I've mentioned it quite a bit on here before, particularly in my FAQ posts about applying to graduate school, but it bears mention again. It contains information on all university programs offering undergraduate and graduate education in costume design and/or technology, sorted by geographical region and alphabetically. Currently, there isn't an option for searching on other variables, such as a particular professor's name, or a particular area of focus, but you could do a restricted google search to look site-specifically, by typing in something like "site:www.unc.edu/costumesurvey/ tailoring" to find all the programs that specifically mention tailoring as a topic they teach. Another caveat: the Survey is updated in the fall (i.e., an update is coming soon), so all the information in there right now is accurate only as of Fall 2008. Anyone may use the Survey site, not just USITT members.

The Costume Plot Database is another free-to-the-public resource sponsored in part by the Costume Commission. Users can search for existing costume plots on there, or add new ones for the benefit of future costumers. It is maintained by Kristina Tollefson of the University of Central Florida.

Kristina also moderates the Costume Info Listserv, a general-discussion Yahoo!Group for USITT members. It's an all-purpose forum for anything related to costuming for performance--technique questions, academic questions, safety queries, job postings. The only taboo topic is rental requests or ads, which should be directed to the USITT Costume Locator Service group.

The International Organization of Scenographers, Architects and Technicians (OISTAT) maintains a website for their Costume Working Group, which features a number of international resources available to USITT members. Anyone may look at the site with a standard web browser.

It's not a Costume Commission sponsored site, but another useful database is Inside Leg, a subscription database of actors' measurements. Any shop manager or designer may subscribe, though the database is only as useful as its participants make it, which is why we ask for a release form from any actor that is cast in our shows and contribute her/his measurements, if they are not already available on there!

Remember my coverage of the USITT Costume Symposium on Fabric Modification, hosted at the beginning of August here in the Department of Dramatic Art and PRC facilites at UNC-Chapel Hill?

Looks like one of my photos (featuring the PlayMakers logo, no less) is featured on the cover of the September issue of Sightlines, the USITT newsletter!

And, there'll be four more of my photographs in the October issue, augmenting an article on the symposium by participant Donna Meester.

Pretty cool!

The Utah Shakespeare Festival is said to be the only theatre company in the world that opens six plays in six days (technically, seven, if you count our Greenshow). We just hit our first round of dress rehearsals so things will be crazy for the next couple of weeks. In lieu of a project post or the usual fare, all i got here is some links and a movie review of a DVD i watched last night in prone exhaustion.

The folks at Steampunk Magazine requested to reprint my instructions for making a Lady Artisan's Apron in their most recent issue. The same issue features a how-to piece on turning a standard bicycle into a modified pennyfarthing ("pennyfakething") so those not into the steampunk subgenre of sci-fi or growing aesthetic still might find the publication of interest. Their site offers the magazine in print form for a small charge, or as a free .pdf download that you can then print out yourself.

Also, the Salt Lake Tribune has an article on the USF's upcoming world premiere of Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical, for which i am the crafts build leader. It's got a lot of info on how a world premiere musical comes about, and a fun photo of the actress portraying Maria Merelli looking like an angry drag queen.

...Which brings me to my movie review: Kinky Boots!

Kinky Boots is a film with a lot of themes--failing relationships, budding relationships, tolerance vs bigotry, loyalty vs greed, fine pairs of shoes, the dichotomy of strength and fragility, culture clash, and transvestites and drag queens. It is also a movie who basic premise is about the process and product of fine craftsmanship--in footwear, no less--which is why i mention it here.

The basic premise is thus: Charlie Price inherits the family shoe factory, which has for generations made top quality sensible brown brogues for men; he shortly discovers that the business is in big trouble financially and flounders for how to save it and the jobs of his 50 or so workers. When he intercedes in what he believes is three men assaulting a woman in an alley whose heel has broken off her shoe and discovers that the woman is in fact a drag queen named Lola, he believes he's found a way to save the factory: change the product. He and his workers re-engineer the structural components of women's footwear to accomodate men's weight and physique. There are, of course, a lot of interpersonal hijinx, ridiculous leather boots, nigh-unbelievable plot twists, and deep vibrato renditions of Nancy Sinatra, as you might imagine. There are also a number of brilliant montages within the shoe factory illustrating the mass-manufacture of finely-crafted men's, women's, and men-who-impersonate-divas' shoes!

Ultimately, it's a movie whose core premise is that of my own career: solving a sartorial engineering problem with ingenuity and craftsmanship. I figured i'd mention it here because it's rare you see elements of my profession and related fields in film at all (or, only on the DVD making-of extras)--if you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out. Besides, if you've ever been to a drag cabaret and seen the costumes that drag queens make for themselves, you know that they are often masters of the art of bricolage!