Author: Jack, Summer Lee

For the Players in Hamlet for the Play within a Play scene the costumes were inspired by traditional commedia dell’arte costumes to add some playfulness to these scenes. inspired by the colorful patterns and historic shapes the costume shop really rose to the challenge of creating some 18th century style costumes that could be quick changed on and off very quickly for the changing nature of this piece where all 10 actors are constantly changing roles. We ordered custom diamond patterned fabric from Spoonflower and painted with Jacquard textile paint onto the fabric to give it a custom look to add more color to the pattern. If you can’t find what you want sometimes you have to customize it to make it just right for the characters.

For the character of Corin in Somewhere Marisela Treviño Orta directed by Olga Sanchez Saltveit, he goes through a transformation during the play and changes to become part of nature. The idea is that the humongous fungus that is described in the play has attached to him and taken over his body and sprouted mushrooms out of his skin, the question is how can we show this onstage??? This was a difficult challenge that involved stencils made with the help of Courtney Smith and silicone prosthetics that were ordered from a vendor in the UK and it was skillfully applied each night backstage by Lile Casey and Kendall Schilling on the actor Ryan Ulen who plays Corin. A double of his plaid shirt was even altered to add roots and moss and small mushrooms to look like they are coming out of it sewn and distressed by Lile Casey. It turned out to be a great success. Here are the photos of the progress we did to test the makeup on the actor and how it looked on stage!

In the Theatre Department’s production of Somewhere by Marisela Treviño Orta directed by Olga Sanchez Saltveit, Olga added these characters called the Kin, who were representative of the character of nature in this play. They represent water in the play and represent the four directions of the wind, they operated and embodied the butterfly in the play; so it was a real design challenge to design what the Kin look like. Summer Lee Jack the resident costume designer for the theater department created these characters with a lot of collaboration with Olga and help with work-study students Elsa Marrian and Lile Casey. A process called Ice Dyeing (learn more here: https://www.dharmatrading.com/home/learn-how-to-ice-dye.html) was used to dye the silk fabric for the tunic garments to invoke the unpredictable look of nature, as well Rust Dyeing (more info about this can be found here: https://www.fourrabbit.com/tutorials/2020/6/25/rust-dyeing-6dzpl#:~:text=Place%20you%20fabric%20with%20rusty,and%20up%20to%20three%20days.) Here are the sketches and photos behind that process:

Students Lile Casey, Hope Jerris, Julia Breckenridge, Elsa Marrian and Meili Huang presented their costume work from the personal projects they have made to the work they did in their winter term internship there was some beautiful projects presented to the group. Hosted by Annabelle Iredale and Zack Maluccio.

Here are some backstage shots of the dresses and other ensembles build for this unique show. All built by our awesome work-study students, our costume shop manager Carol Wood & Robin Foster Cole asst costume shop manager. Designed by Summer Lee Jack.

The Many Hands that Make ‘The Moors’

The Middlebury College Costume Shop in the Department of Theatre has been feverishly working on costumes for their upcoming production of ‘The Moors’ by Jen Silverman. Directed by Prof. Michole Biancosino and costume designed by Prof. Summer Lee Jack, ‘The Moors’ is set in the mid-19th century with all its corsety goodness! For the past two months, 30 people have been building all the costumes from the skin out. This means corsets galore, petticoats a-flutter, miles and miles of delicious fabric. Skilled hands have been preparing sumptuous garments at the machine and by hand for your delight in December!!

Featuring the hands of: Emma Barrett, Lu Mena, Meili Huang, Molly Dorion, Rose Saint-Clair, Robin Foster Cole, Charlotte Roberts, Julia Breckenridge

Photos taken by our fabulous shop manager Carol Wood! Thank you all for all your amazing work on this show so far!! Can’t wait to see this one on stage after Thanksgiving! On Stage December 1-3 at the Wright Memorial Theater!

Last Fall the production studio class made these rhinoceros horns in class that were showcased in the Middlebury Theatre Department’s production of Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco. The students under the direction of Robin Foster Cole made these magnetic horns that attached to their costume and we made one larger than life tap dancing Rhino costume for the final tableau of this absurdist play.