Camille/Takeshi Diptychs
As a bit of a teaser before I do a full write-up of the gown and vest I made for Camille and Takeshi’s beautiful wedding at City Hall, I’m posting a few diptychs by their outstanding wedding photographer, Alison Bank. Can you spot the laser-cutting?
© Alison Bank, http://firstcomesloveweddings.com
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Tags: eveningwear wedding
Recently opened at A.C.T. is the West Coast premiere of David Mamet’s November, a show set in the Oval Office. Now, even President Obama has failed to push White House fashion much further than snappy ties with a conservative suit, so the show could have been a bore to costume. Despite this, costume designer Alex Jaeger and I still found ways to have some fun.
For the supporting characters, we transformed several core company members of A.C.T. who might normally be recognized from their regular appearances on stage. For example, we added a long wig and a colorful headdress of porcupine and deer hair to veteran Stephen Anthony Jones. He was transformed into Micmac Indian Chief Dwight Grackle, effectively boosting the climatic scene where he storms the Oval Office demanding repayment for crimes against his tribe. The SF Examiner praised our image overhaul.
Appealing offbeat performances come from company stars unrecognizable in their roles. The usually glamorous René Augesen is the jet-lagged, head-cold-afflicted presidential speech writer (just back from adopting a baby in China and determined to marry her girlfriend), while matinee idol Manoel Felciano is the wimpy, balding National Turkey Association representative.
Aside from these grand gestures, some very detailed costuming is done to help the cast get into character. Some of these details are ones that the audience would never notice. For example, the representative for the National Federation of Turkey Manufacturers wears a hilarous lapel pin of a turkey flying across the American flag. And in Act III, the President dons cufflinks with a carefully reproduced impression of the Presidential Seal.
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Production photos by Kevin Berne
Update:
It seems that President Charles P. Smith has higher approval ratings than we thought, because the show has been extended for another week until November 22nd. So, you’ve got now plenty of time to check out the show. In the meantime, get a few laughs from the show’s ad that I acted as stylist for.
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The San Francisco Chronicle just posted a gushing review about the 1st show of A.C.T.’s 2009-10 season, Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter. While this is the U.S. premiere of a show that was originally mounted in England by Kneehigh Theatre (so we in the A.C.T. Costume Shop only made small contributions), I hope that the quality of this show represents the beginning of a season of innovative and moving productions.
Here’s an excerpt from the review to persuade you further to go get tickets. Right now! Before everyone else in town rushes to the box office!
Every so often a theater piece comes to town that is so brilliantly conceived and executed, so entertaining on every level, that you want everyone you love or even like just a bit to see it. Kneehigh Theatre’s “Brief Encounter,” the opening show in the American Conservatory Theater’s new season, is that kind of experience.
Anarchic humor deepens the pain of lost love, and iconoclasm reinvigorates nostalgia in director Emma Rice’s mashup of a classic David Lean film, the wit and melody of Noël Coward and a carnival of vaudeville.
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Styling Stephen
My focus when styling Stephen was to assemble a formalwear ensemble that matched his unique style. Stephen’s comfortable, casual outfits have almost become a uniform for him, over the years. He is almost always out and about wearing cargo pants and hoodies in a palette of olives and browns. He wears soft, natural textures.
The challenge was to create a sharp, formal look out of these casual elements. Stephen would feel confined in a tux or sport coat, so I thought it would be best to stick to a vest and tie. I found this runway shot that inspired us to look for a mix of pieces in complementary textures and colors, but in brown tones.
I set out shopping and pretty quickly came across this taupe Ted Baker vest that seemed ideal for the occasion. It had some interesting elements that I thought Stephen would like such as the pairs of buttons and the contrasting fabric for the welt pockets and button flap. It also worked well for a vest worn as an outer layer because the back was not in a lining fabric, but the same wool as the front. Starting with this vest, I found coordinating pants, tie, and a shirt. Stephen made the outfit further his own by picking out some special striped socks and adding a scarf and fedora for the reception.
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Wedding in the Woods
This past weekend I had the great pleasure of contributing to the celebration of my friends Stephen and Mary’s wedding ceremony. Mary entrusted me with the creation of her gown and Stephen enlisted me as his stylist.
Mary and I started discussions of the dress in November after she had tried on a dress which had some elements she liked, but didn’t cry out to her as The Dress. She especially liked that it had fabric strips that wrapped around the waist and folded over each other to become a train. Working with that, we looked for a way to incorporate the fabric wraps into the overall design of her gown. While researching various wrapping options, an Oscars dress with an asymmetrical wrapping pattern caught my eye. Using these dresses as inspiration, we developed the final design in a champagne silk dupioni with a crinkle chiffon overlay.
This was a rewarding dress to work on not only because it brought so much joy to Mary on her wedding day, but also because it presented some novel design challenges. Since we knew the dress would be in a light color, have a train, and be worn in the woods, Mary was concerned about the dress getting dirty by the end of the night. We looked to an Ombré dyeing technique to bring in some color on the train and at the bottom of the dress to mask any dirt that might collect on it. Plus, the color we chose to dye it had the added benefit of coordinating with her tattoo and hair. After the ceremony, Mary draped the light-weight train over her arm and eventually I braided it to keep it off of the ground as she danced.
Another problem to solve was due to the wrapping pattern of the chiffon overlay which circled her body several times in some cases. I had to experiment with a few different iterations of zipper placement and wrapping order to achieve the effect. I then created a fake knot for the wraps to snap into after we zipped her up. We also discovered at an early fitting that the wraps wanted to shift around a bit as she moved. To counter this, I delicately hand-stitched each wrap (making sure to hide the stitches under the transparent chiffon) to ensure that they stayed exactly where we wanted them!
Both Mary and I were ecstatic about the final gown. We collaborated in the creation of a dress that was not only beautiful on its own, but truly fit her personality and style. The day of the wedding, I got the best compliment of all: her new husband thanked me and told me that I had done her justice.
Enjoy some candid shots from the wedding. Shortly, the professional wedding photos will be available, and I’ll make sure to share those with you, too. Coming up: A post detailing Stephen’s outfit.
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- Wrapping Inspiration
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- Train Inspiration
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“Boleros” in Memory
My last show with A.C.T. this season was assisting Sandra Woodall on “Boleros for the Disenchanted,” an autobiographical piece by playwright José Rivera. The story spans continents and generations, following his mother and father’s relationship from the village of Miraflores and bustling Santurce, Puerto Rico in 1953 to the Fort Rucker army base in Daleville, Alabama in the early 1990’s. The play gives us insight into the universal American immigrant experience and how dreams are changed by time and betrayals.
Befitting these themes, Sandra wanted to focus on dressing the characters according to memories relating to our own families’ immigrant experiences. We combined José’s photos of the people the characters are based on, our family snapshots, and vintage photos of Puerto Rico to flesh out the costumes with many authentic personal touches. Don Fermin wears my abuelito’s (grandfather’s) fedora and checked shirt and Old Eusebio carries grandpa’s lucky Joker and picture of John Wayne in his shirt pocket (“a real man’s man”). Old Flora is wearing Sandra’s aunt’s house dress and my grandmother’s jewelry from the ’90s while Dona Milla dons the faded navy dress and thin cotton apron of Sandra’s family from a small village in Portugal.
We hope that grounding the characters in such a specific reality will help the story resonate with the audience as a truth that relates to their own lives. Were we successful?
Production photos by Kevin Berne
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Achilles’ tale of love and war has been given a contemporary voice by the poet Christopher Logue. Tonight, A.C.T. is premiering an epic new work based on this modern translation of The Iliad, War Music. Beaver Bauer’s costumes move the story dramatically, designed with a minimalist base upon which key details are added. The set by Daniel Ostling utilizes the same techniques. The actors all appear on stage in khaki cargo pants, but Gods appear in ornate gold masks, dawn awakes with a dance of watercolor silk, and Zeus presides in a boxer’s robe emblazoned with a bolt of lightning. Soldiers in metal helmets echo battles of the previous century and remind us that wars continue to be fought for dubious reasons. Still, love ain’t the worst of them.
This has been a challenging show to work on, but I’m looking forward to seeing the results on stage. It promises to be breath-taking.
Production photos by Kevin Berne
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John Guare’s “Rich and Famous”
Opening night has come of the new show I’m costuming with A.C.T., Rich and Famous . It’s a pretty silly satire about a not-so-great playwright who really really wants to be famous. The costumes by Gregory Gale and sets by Scott Bradley are extremely detailed and captured the surreality of the show. Very 70’s and over-the-top.
The SF Chronicle sets the scene in a recent review:
Not only is Bing Ringling a pretty smooth crooner, with Ashmanskas’ polished song-and-dance chops, but his story is kind of a circus. Scott Bradley’s imaginative set is a midway of sliding stages, billboards and ornate bedrooms against a patchwork of tawdry-festive Chagall-like splotches. Gregory Gale outfits the company in a clown show of ’70s costumes. Three supporting actors create a three-ring extravaganza of caricatures.
Since Gregory is based in NYC, I coordinated the execution of his vision in the A.C.T. shop. My favorite pieces were the starry tunic and sequined caped dress for a disco-era Dante and Beatrice and the hand-painted chartreuse ensemble for the composer Anatol Torah.
Production photos by Kevin Berne and Alessandra Mello
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“Quality of Life” on stage
I’m finishing up the costuming for A.C.T.’s newest production, Quality of Life. The past 2 months of assisting Bay Area designer Lydia Tanji has been a lovely collaboration. The show centers around two couples, one a UC Berkeley professor and his poet wife, another a contractor from Ohio and a housewife who loves “Jesus and handicrafts.” Residing in North Berkeley herself, Lydia’s designs evoked familiar images of those artsy, world-traveler bohemians in the Hills without being too literal. As a native Kansan, I was happy to provide some insight into Midwest fashion and gave thoughtful consideration when asked “Would your mom wear this?” According to SF Chronicle’s laudatory review,
Lydia Tranji’s [sic] costumes contribute beautifully to our understanding of the couples’ relationships.
The show is running through Nov 23 – I’d definitely recommend checking it out. An engaging show with some nuanced performances.
Production photos by Kevin Berne
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downtown bound
© 2005 Beaver Bauer for A.C.T.
I’m so psyched for my new position as the Costume Design Assistant at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.). I start at the beginning of August and will be assisting guest designers from the Bay Area and NY for the entire season. Pretty rad. Rad enough to make the 9-5 schedule worth it, I hope! 1 World and 2 West Coast premieres won’t hurt. 
Maybe I can convince some of my friends to check out more theatre in town. I hear there’s cheap season tickets for teachers and students. nudge nudge.
Hooray!
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Tags: theatre costumedesign
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