Only in the theater can a vintage fan become a tree, like the one that was the inspiration for a set piece in a production of
Tom Sawyer that I saw at the exhibit
Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for a Live Performance. at the New York Public Library.
My friend and I maneuvered through a forest of costumes from the gaudy to the jeweled (or both!), which included a glittery ice-blue, ruffled gown designed for Glinda in a production of
Wicked, lizard costumes for the Edward Albee play
Seascape, a donkey head for
A Midsummer's Night Dream, two pink sheep from
Candide, and the Lumiere candlestick and iconic yellow dress designed for Belle in
Beauty and the Beast, which I actually saw on Broadway (though I blush admitting this) I was with my mom, I swear! My only complaint about the costume portion of the exhibit was that the way the signs were arranged forced my friend and me to bounce from side-to-side to match the information with the diffferent costumes.
Looking at the sketches on display I didn't realize how creative you could be while just thinking out your ideas. In writing it's pretty much scribbles and cross-outs (possibly in different-colored ink), some carrots, and maybe if you're really lucky some doodles in the margins-I specialize in flowers, or perhaps the coup de grace, a writing exercise that actually involves drawing (such as the assignment was asked to draw a picture of the neighborhood wher I grew up, but that's another story....) but with costume design, there were whole collages, fabric samples, magazine cut-outs, and beads. Catherine Zuber who designed the aforementioned (I love this word!) lizard costumes actually used pictures of real lizards as her inspiration. Much as I applaud these cut and paste methods (I generally prefer to write longhand on writing pads) I also found out that some designers scan their sketches into computers and can add color directly to their sketch. How 21st century of them...
Believe it or not, but there actually is more to designing costumes than sashes, hats, capes, and feathers. I learned that yellow is the hardest color to use onstage because it can be harsh against the skin tone and cause it to look green, that fabrics for dance, especially ballet, must be lightweight, and most costumes are actually minimalistic and made up of net and air.
The set models we saw were a whole other nod to creative detail, I think my favorite had to be the design for
High Fidelity, complete with tiny record albums, though the set for
Crimes of the Heart had a cake on the kitchen table and a little phone, and the shadowbox for
Nocturne had a man in a bathtub with books and shoes, clothes, and a plate of food on the floor.
At the end of the costume platform, props (?) such as masks of Egyptian-like faces and large, weird bugs dominated the area and there were TVs playing clips of various theater productions that you could listen to with headphones.
One last bit of theater-geek amusement, on the information card for a costume from
Macbeth, they described it as "the Scottish play." Love it!
Cheap Chick Info: Free! This exhibit only has a few days left to it, (through May 2nd, 2009) but I also highly recommend you check out their other exhibit, 40 Years of Firsts: Dance Theater of Harlem, which is on until May 9th, 2009. Exhibit hours: Tues, Wed, and Fri: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Mon, Thurs: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Sat: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Location Info: New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza
Subway: 1 to 66th Street, B, D, C,A to 59th Street/Columbus Circle
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