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As I was leaving an opera performance in Boston of Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night, someone asked me if the costume she wore, and that I created, was vintage? Part of me wanted to lie and say “Yes, so old, just so dreadfully old!” And part of me wanted to tell the truth, “Hell no!” (As I recall I said something polite like, “Well, no, it is a modern gown that I made look old.”)
Distressing costumes is a process. In the case of Miss Havisham… a long one. You basically have to take the costume to “another place or time.” In this case, from like the “Polyester 1980s” to 1850!
Quick background… jilted on her wedding day, Miss Havisham has been in her wedding clothes for 50 years. In the opera she recalls the terrible day and her life since. I designed the costumes for Odyssey Opera’s production at the Modern Theater in November 2014. The short opera played in a double-bill with “A Water Bird Talk” starring Aaron Engebreth.
Back to my distressing tale… I started by sanding the entire dress with sandpaper. Then I slowly started staining it with fabric dyes. I had three pots–light grey, light yellow and a tan/tea color. Using a wide brush and a rag I worked the dyes into the fabric paying particular attention to where stains might naturally occur–armpits, center front, center back, all along the hem!, etc.

But this polyester wedding gown that I started to think was manufactured by either a bullet-proof vest company or a sports bra manufacturer was not looking old. Not at all! Time for the rasp and the drommel.

Yup! I was takin’ this dress down–working both tools from top to bottom.

Miss Havisham does quite a bit of candle toting so I added some wax (in the form of hot glue). I also melted actual wax on her gloves.
No bridal gown is complete without a lovely string of pearls.

Finally, Boston wig designer Rachel Padula made her a fabulous wig. To which we added some cobwebs. I actually added cobwebs all over her gown and trailing from her veil.

All-in-all it took over 10 hours of dying, sanding, and ripping to get Miss Havisham just right.
Here she is in all her glory on her wedding night. Played by the beautiful Heather Buck, Miss Havisham looked like one sad, vintage bride from long-ago, but now you know the whole tale!

In the summer of 1998 I went to a cookout in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood in Boston, and met Diane Edgecomb, a storyteller and performance artist. Wearing big sunglasses and her petite hands going in all directions, she began telling me about a project she was dreaming about–twin Greek goddesses, fully costumed, roaming the Boston subway system and perhaps meeting up with a Minataur and maybe Athena and there should be masks and the audience should be involved in the experience. “Is this ANYTHING you’d be interested in costuming???” Cue muzak and little floating hearts above my head! I made all those costumes we talked about that day and along the way, made a great friend and collaborator.

I admit I find theatrical fittings stressful. Oftentimes it’s the first time you’ve seen the performer and the first time you’ve actually seen the garments on someone. Added to that, people are busy and you have limited time to get them in, dressed and their garments altered. As a designer, there can often be a disconnect between what you “thought” the character would look like and what he/she “actually” looks like! You need to make quick decisions and hopefully have options and of course try to avoid, “second” and “third” fittings.
And then sometimes, an actor steps out of the dressing room and you just swoon. The silhouette is perfect; the color sparkles; the fit is spot-on.
And then sometimes, a performer steps out of the dressing room and you just crack up! This was the case with the mute, comedic butler character in “il secreto di susannah.” I wanted him to look buttoned-up and proper. I wanted him standing straight when onstage overseeing the zaniness of the opera. What better way to do it than in a slightly too-tight, period vest?!

First fitting with Steven Goldstein
Photo: Kathy Wittman

Here’s hoping for more hilarity and less stress… unless of course I’m designing a tragedy, and then maybe no hilarity and NO STRESS!

I have been in the Boston University Theater in Boston for the last few days getting the costumes ready for Odyssey Opera’s 3-opera-festival.

Three different time periods, three different sets of singers and one great costume crew! Having spent a lot of time with that crew, I am struck by how talented each and every one of them is and how each has added their own signature strength to the overall look. Sometimes when I talk about “costume design” I wonder if people know just how many hands touch one pretty costume? I can doodle and dream, but without a talented team of drapers, seamstresses, wardrobe crew and eventually performers, they are just doodles on a page.

It is really wonderful to watch costumes evolve from the page to fittings to the actual stage. But it is an evolution with many “hand-offs”.

And long before my costume crew joined the “Odyssey” I had the production’s design team –the directors and the set and lighting designers–to talk with and bounce ideas off of. Each of these conversations help round out an overall look for a production. (It’s like a big, layer cake that get’s yummier as you drop your fork down!)

To me, this is what makes theater a yummy treat for the eyes, ears and heart!