Month: January 2020

Q: Were there any activities you did as a child that led to your passion for the arts?

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t doing something artistic or creative. I’ve always liked doing arts and crafts in school or at home. I spent hours drawing my own version of anime. I loved to dance, sing and listen to music. I played clarinet and saxophone in middle school and high school. An introduction to theatre class in college turned me on to theatre, which tied all my interests together.

Q: Where did you receive training?

I earned a bachelor of arts degree at the University of South Florida in Theatre Design and Technology. I studied set, costume, and lighting design. I earned my Masters in Fine Arts degree at the University of Missouri, Kansas City in Costume Design and Technology.

Q: What other companies have you most recently designed for?

Most recently, I worked with Pure Theatre on an interactive production of Oscelola’s Muse. I took a break from theatre design to raise my two daughters, Ava (13) and Anna (11). Before, I was the head of the Costume Design Program at the College of Charleston for five years.

Q: Please discuss your process as the Costume Designer for Our Town.

First, I read the script to get a general feel of what the play is about and how it made me feel. Then, I analyzed the script for all costume information. I noted the year it took place (1901, 1904, 1913), the setting (Grover Corners, New Hampshire), the time of year (spring and summer), the time of day, the weather, the occasion, and the style the show was written (minimalistic, theatrical–set on a stage). I then studied what is said about each character by other characters, what a character says about (him/her)self, and what is noted in the stage directions. I looked at the occupation, age, gender, lifestyle, and class of each character. I also tracked characters entrances and exits to plan out costume changes (stage managers provided some of this information). Once this was done, I met with the director, Marybeth Clark, and the design team and, together, came up with a concept or approach on how the overall production would look. We decided to keep the production in the era it was set, and keep the Stage Manager character in the same era as the play. We talked about how the costumes were to be the focal point of the show because of the sparse scenic elements. We chose to minimize the number of costumes for each character in order to keep with the abstract nature of the set design and echo the hazy nature of memory. I tried to keep characters in simple, unpretentious clothing of the middle class, but visually stimulating for the audience. Marybeth wanted a color pallet based on a drop Julian Wiles designed for the show. The colors are bright, saturated, and lively, which reflects the joys and simple beauty of daily life. This led me to choose costumes that were a bit more colorful than was usual back in the Edwardian period (tan, navy, & black). In contrast, Act III is in somber black for the funeral. I researched 1901-1913 fashion, life, and professions in books and on-line—Pinterest was my favorite source. Finally, I pulled as many costumes I could from Charleston Stage’s costume stock. I redesigned most of the women’s gowns to give them the line and details common in early 1900’s. We ordered corsets to help maintain the proper silhouette and physical movement of the era. I designed a few original pieces: Emily’s first act look, Rebecca’s “gingham dress,” and Mrs. Webb’s ensemble.

Q: What are you most excited about that audiences will experience with your designs for Our Town?

I hope some of the trimming details will be fun to see, but I hope nothing stands out as a distraction. I aim to always serve the play and it’s own idea of “truth.”

Q: Tell us a little more about yourself.

I absolutely love spending quality time with my wonderful and talented husband, Frank Duvall and our two daughters, Ava and Anna. When I’m not designing costumes, I teach. I taught sewing, rendering, pattern drafting, and fashion history at the Art Institute of Charleston for five years, before it closed. Now, I substitute for mainly middle school and high school classes on James Island. I like to paint, knit, shop, read and sew quilts in my free time. I also try to find time to take long walks at James Island County Park.

Performances of Our Town run February 5 – 23 at the Historic Dock Street Theatre. For tickets, click here.

A Remembrance by Julian Wiles, Charleston Stage’s Founder and Producing Director

“You brought me all the way to New York to see a play without scenery?” That was what my Mom said back in 1988. I had brought her to New York as a Christmas present to see several Broadway shows, the first of which was the fiftieth anniversary of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer prize-winning Our Town. “Just wait,” I said to her as she gazed on the bare almost empty stage. “You’ll see, there’s more here than meets the eye, and it’s a love story so keep your eye on George and Emily.” And in a few moments as the play began, and as Emily Webb and George Gibbes fell in love, my Mom, as well as the rest of the audience, was mesmerized by the extraordinary power of this simple play—one of the greatest American plays ever written. It is my favorite play.

Sadly, too many people only know Our Town from a dreary high school literature class and have never seen an actual performance of this classic on stage. And of course, Our Town was written not to be read but to be performed.

In 1938, Our Town was considered revolutionary, radical, and avant garde, because playwright Thornton Wilder brazenly discarded scenery (or most of it), did away with props, and dared to present a play without any of the glitzy “window dressing” or dancing girls that audiences had come to expect. After all, this was the era of the Ziegfeld Follies and Busby Berkley musicals, so to strip away all of the spectacle for a Broadway show was startling to audiences. And even today, in an era where multi-million dollar Broadway musical spectaculars like Wicked and The Lion King are the norm, the simplicity of Our Town retains its special power to move audiences. In fact, Our Town remains one of the most produced plays on earth.

There was a method to Wilder’s no scenery, no props madness. He set this simple story of George and Emily on a nearly bare stage because he wanted us not to look at the scenery but to focus our eyes on something else. And that something else is everyday life— for it’s within everyday life that we actually live. Wilder wanted us to see that too often we take so much of our day-to-day lives for granted— breakfast each day, racing off to work or school, the landmarks in our lives— falling in love, marriage, children, friendships all taken for granted. By focusing on the seemingly mundane day-to-day tasks, he wanted us to see the simple wonder of being alive on this earth. But Wilder doesn’t sugarcoat this in a “just stop and smell the roses” sentimentality, he shows us there are also disappointments in life too, that many hopes and dreams remain unfilled. Such is life.

And that is the magic of Our Town. Like all great plays, Our Town invites us to look at life from different angles and, in doing so, gain new perspectives of what we too often take for granted.

Charleston Stage’s new production with its fine cast under Associate Artistic Director Marybeth Clark’s direction will bring Our Town off the page, out of your memory of that long ago stodgy English class, and on the stage where it belongs.

In the end, my Mom was not disappointed when she first saw Our Town in New York back in 1988 and at 92 years old now, is looking forward to seeing George and Emily fall in love once more. She already has her tickets. I know she won’t be disappointed.

Performances of Our Town run Feb. 5 – 23 at the Historic Dock Street Theatre. For tickets, click here.