Costume Design Class, Spring 2023
When I began my masters program in Theater many years ago, my intended focus was Costume Design and Technology. Upon entering, I immediately found it impossible to fulfill one very important requirement, for when I asked how many hours I would need to spend in the costume shop, I was told: "when you're not in class, you're in the costume shop". I was employed full-time, out of absolute necessity. When I wasn't in class, I had to be at my job. So I switched my area of study to Playwriting. I did so quite apprehensively, since writing plays represented a whole new way of working. Dialogue has never been my strength - in life or on paper. It's been a challenge, and remains so to this day. However, learning to create plays has been the most immense joy I can imagine. I compare playwrights to toy makers - we're creating things that we hope our fellow theater artists will want to engage with, and make something new out of, investing them with a perspective unique to a particular production. The play becomes an intricate form of communication and community.
Now, more than ten years after I completed my masters program, I've finally gotten out of ye olde Student Loan Repayment dungeon, where every creative impulse is immediately crushed beneath the weight of overwhelming debt. There is no breathing room when you can't make ends meet. I must say the world seems much brighter, now that I no longer owe the federal government a quarter of a million dollars, which is where the interest had built it up to. I can afford paper and art supplies again!
Working at the university and having the luxury of a flexible schedule - and a very kind supervisor who wants to encourage me - means I'm able to audit classes on campus, with the course instructor's permission. I approached the Theater Department again after so many years, finding many new and unfamiliar faces among the faculty, but also, wonderfully, some who are old friends. Last semester I took a Foundational Drawing class with one of the newer faculty. What began with a simple geometric still life culminated in a ten-panel storyboard including figure drawings, architecture, landscapes and costume. The class moved fast! Extremely encouraging. This semester I'm continuing again with the same great professor, and auditing the first Costume Design class I've done in ages. We'll be working in watercolor, which is new for me. Yesterday was our first class & I'm very excited for what's to come. I'll be using my LiveJournal to help me keep a record of what we accomplish & how the process is going.