What is your role in the production of Dancing Lessons?
I am the costume designer.
 
How do the costumes in Dancing Lessons reflect the lives of their respective characters?
Clothes communicate so much about us on so many levels, from connotations we chose to those that come across unintentionally. For instance, Senga was once successful even though she is now deeply depressed. Her apartment is a bright colorful reminder of who she was, and the clothes are also from her past life. She wears her most comfortable clothes but it is the fact that she stays in pajamas that tells the story. The actress Cael brought edginess to the character that added another dimension to her character’s anger. I supported this direction by choosing to allow her to wear her nose ring and other piercings, and bold haircut. However, I did not trim or maintain the hairstyle to reflect how the character has been neglecting her body.
 
What questions did you ask yourself early on when designing costumes for a show?
What story am I helping to tell? What can I communicate about each of the characters in the choices that I make?  Designing a contemporary show depends on collaboration with the actors, so the first step was getting to know each of the actors and seeing what elements of themselves, if any, they were going to incorporate into the character. I needed to know their way into the play—what they felt was the core of the character.
 
Above all I needed to understand Asperger’s and what that can mean for an individual’s relation to their clothes. Most importantly, I have learned there are no rules, as each person is different. The text offers me some rules: he hates skin to skin contact. One of his tics is adjusting his glasses. I had to ask myself: what about his clothes protects him from the world? Would he choose a sweater that was too large so he could pull the sleeves over the hand to avoid a painful touch on the subway? Was there someone who advised him in his clothes at some point and now he only purchases that one style and brand?
 
Did the designs end up changing much from what you had originally planned?
The designs evolved with the actor’s process. As Andy grew into his character, Ever, and discovered how Ever relates to his world and his tics I began to make choices that would support those decisions. I really appreciated this design collaboration in that Cristina built things into moments—every choice became a part of the story.
 
The biggest design question was the final moment, which is best not to give away! What kind of formalwear does Ever wear? Does he take it too far and rent a tails instead of a tux? We ended up going with the tails as a moment to allow him to make a wrong social choice. For a person who has to study social situations and people, sometimes he shouldn’t get it right.
 
What do you like about Dancing Lessons?
I was immediately charmed by the piece. It’s humorous but full of substance. I think it is a beautiful story about how we all approach the world with the brain we have, each of us with different abilities and limitations.
 
Why do you believe theatre is important?
Theatre is important because storytelling is important. Storytelling is a way of learning empathy, even for those of us who don’t need to study to be ‘neurotypical.’
 

Costume design is something that most people do not think about when seeing a play. In fact, the costumes are usually something you should not notice - at least for plays set in the current era. If the design is successful, it will look like the characters are wearing their own clothes, not like each piece has been carefully thought out, chosen, and fit to the actor. Every once in a while, however, there comes a show where the costumes should stick out. Venus in Fur is one of those plays. How often do you get to have modern clothing, period clothing, S&M gear, and a fur cape all in the same show?

As always when I design a play, I started my work on Venus with the script - reading, rereading, and going over all the costume pieces mentioned. After figuring that out, I started my research. For this, I researched each piece of it - the modern, the period, and the exotic - to find a look for each character that could flow seamlessly between time periods and genres. I made tearsheets of my research, and met with Cristina (and the rest of the design team) to share thoughts and ideas. Once we decided the direction we wanted to go, I started actually looking for the costume pieces.

Shopping for Venus was like no other show that I have worked on. The diversity of the things I was looking for was staggering - leather corsets, dog collars, an 1870s dress, a frock coat, servant's livery, as well as modern clothes. Looking for corsets and dog collars, I discovered a different side of Amazon and Etsy - one I never knew existed. Finding the right collar proved to be especially tricky. We wanted a collar that would be sexy enough for the S&M, but still simple enough not to be jarring in the 1870 sections. After days of searching online and in local clothing and exotic stores, I finally went to PetSmart, where I found several actual dog collars that met our needs. As I was checking out, the cashier asked me how many dogs I had. I told her none - I was a costume designer and the collar would be worn by humans. It's not every day you get to say that.

Once the pieces were collected, it was time to have fittings with the actors to put together each look and see how they would flow into the next. Options are always good things to have at fittings - no matter how carefully you choose a costume piece, sometimes things just don't look right when they are on the actor all together. It's always good to have multiple ideas for everything just in case. Through our fittings, we found looks we were very happy with for each character - and their transformations.

Every play presents its own set of unique costume challenges beyond finding the right pieces of clothing. Unlike most plays, although there are many costume changes throughout Venus, the actors do not leave the stage. This presented its own set of challenges - how do the costumes arrive onstage? Do the actors take anything off in order to put on the new pieces or do they layer? What sort of closures are needed on the costumes so the actors can change themselves onstage without help? These are things that we continued to work on and tweak up though our tech rehearsals until we ironed out the kinks in the details of the costume pieces and the changes felt comfortable for the actors.

When you watch Venus in Fur, the characters should look comfortable in their clothing - like it belongs to them. But also watch for the moments when the costumes make themselves known, the theatrical moments where they do stand out - not that you have to look very carefully - they are hard to miss.