Q: Where did you grow up? Were there any activities you did as a child that led to your passion for the arts?
I grew up in Minneapolis, a city with a vibrant arts community. There seemed to be a little thread of creativity in the family as one of my many aunts was a dancer, another was a skilled caterer, flower arranger and craftswoman, and a cousin was a visual artist. Most of our very large extended family were not artists, but we few dedicated our careers to our various creative pursuits. I always loved to draw, loved to read, loved acting, and eventually learned to sew. If you put those things together, you pretty much have a costume designer.
Q: Where did you receive training? How did this prepare you for your work in the theatre world?
I went to college at the University of Minnesota. It is there, working as a mime for the Peppermint Tent Summer Children’s Theatre, that I discovered how much more interesting it was to design costumes was than it was to perform. The costume designer that summer was having difficulty producing the costumes required for the show, so I volunteered to go home and make something that would fit into the designer’s color scheme. I found this so inspiring that I decided that I wanted the costume designer’s job next summer. I no longer auditioned and I took my first costume design class. In the end, I designed costumes for all five of the University of Minnesota’s theatres before graduating. I also built gigantic full body masks for an anti-Vietnam War protest on the steps of the state capitol in St. Paul. It was all too much fun to do anything else.
I went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Fortunately for me, Wisconsin had assembled a team of top designers to teach their MFA program. There was no one to teach costume construction, so it was a good thing that I arrived with sewing skills. My fellow students and I didn’t have much time for anything other than attending class and working in the costume shop, so homework was often squeezed into exam periods or overnight writing or drawing sessions. It was a serious trial for the jobs that came after, because there is never enough time, enough labor or enough money.
Q: What other companies have you most recently designed for?
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival, The Clarence Brown theatre, Playmaker’s Repertory, The Barter Theater, The Arkansas Repertory, Syracuse Stage, and The Peccadillo Theater.
Q: Please discuss your process as the Costume Designer for Of Mice and Men.
The best research for this period is in the photographs from the Works Progress Administration like Dorthea Lange and Walker Evans. The photos are a moving testament to the hardships of ordinary people during the depression.
Q: What are you most excited about that audiences will experience with your designs for Of Mice and Men?
In a play like Of Mice and Men, I will feel like I have succeeded if the audience doesn’t think of the clothes as costumes, but as a natural extension of who each character is. They should be virtually unnoticeable.
Q: Tell us a little more about yourself.
I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, where I have just retired from my position as professor, resident costume designer and head of the MFA design program after 44 years at the University of Tennessee. Having left my first teaching job midway through a two year contract at the University of Colorado (a beautiful place but a terrible job), I decided that I had to stick out at least two years at the University of Tennessee or I might get a reputation for being flighty. That ship sailed.
Part of my job at the University of Tennessee was developing enlightening travel programs for the M.F.A. students. I arranged opportunities for master classes and cultural immersion in England, Wales, Germany, Bulgaria, The Czech Republic, Mexico, India, Thailand and Cambodia. Through this I developed a delight in travel and I continue to pursue travel on my own and with friends.
Featured (from left to right): Costume rendering for George and costume rendering for Lennie by Marianne Custer.
Performances of Of Mice and Men run October 17 – November 4 at the Historic Dock Street Theatre. To purchase tickets online, click here.