UC San Diego

A costume designer’s task is, at the very least, to provide wearable objects for performers in a production. But we are more. We are visual artists who translate two dimensions into three. We are text analysts, and sometimes we are dramaturgs. We are collaborators and idea-sharers. We are psychologists and psychoanalysts for both the real and fictional characters that surround a production. We are of the body and of the mind.

I don’t always achieve all of those things – but when I do, it is my most realized and fulfilling work. MOVERS + SHAKERS was one of those processes.

But it was more than just a personal artistic success.

Devised theatre takes the singular parts of the form, the one-on one collaborations (with director; with artistic team; with other designers; with actors), and adds another element – liveness.

The first day of rehearsal is usually the marker of the beginning of the end for a costume designer. Eighty percent of the work is behind us – the research, the conversations about character, the renderings. Those final few weeks are about finishing.

In this process, we turned the ratio on its head. Twenty percent of the work was in the preparation, while the remaining eighty happened in the rehearsal room. The design was directly influenced by staging, but staging was also influenced by costume. The result was an entirely motivated and collaborative design.