Behind The Scenes: Costume Design

This is the third in the series of articles, called Behind The Scenes, in which we will take a look at a variety of technical artists that help bring your favorite productions to life. 

Ghost Light interviewed costume designers Linda Ann (LA) Hammond and Paul Foltz to learn a bit more about the way a costume designer approaches the task of creating distinct looks for the actors in a theatre production – and some of the challenges they experience in doing so.

Q.  Could you share a bit about your background in this area of the theatre arts?

LH:  My work in costuming began following my retirement from the legal profession in 2005. I started volunteering in earnest as a dresser under the leadership of the legendary Gwen Alsedek at Open Stage of Harrisburg until someone found out I could sew and asked me to volunteer at the Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg --  this time, as the costume designer.   It was the first of many shows that I worked on for LTM, Oyster Mill Playhouse, and other local theaters.

In 2007, I began costuming for Gamut Theatre in Harrisburg.  The most extraordinary shows were the annual Young Acting Company extravaganzas of the Popcorn Hat Players.  These large productions each involved 50 or 60 children, and upwards of 180 costumes.  I costumed the children’s shows for about six years, with the increasing help of legions of volunteers.  I was the costume designer for several Free Shakespeare in the Park shows and several more Gamut stage productions. 

PF:   I’ve been working professionally as a costume designer since the early 1970’s in London, Scotland, New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia and now in Harrisburg, almost always in the areas of not-for-profit theatre and academia.  My training was done “old school” – I apprenticed with three different designers over a roughly 10-year period while I was also working in design.

Q. What do you see as the basic responsibility of a costume designer?

LH:  The “big-picture responsibility” is that I work to help round out the director’s vision for the story on the stage via everything the characters wear. 

PF: You have to move from a theoretical process – where you read through the script several times and research, develop and design the costumes -- to the physical process where you shop, measure, draft, cut, construct, fit and finish.

Q. What do you consider the most important part of what you do?

PF:  You have to perform all of your tasks in a firmly collaborative mindset with the other designers and meld that with the vision of the production’s director to achieve a unified, artistically viable product. On an individual level, my greatest responsibility is being certain that what I create helps the actor to give their best performance.

LH:  That’s not an easy question because none of what I do works unless all of what I’m doing works. For example – if I have an excellent design but only a fair concept, the result fails the production. On the whole, I need to envision an accurate version of each costume, determine the best way to fabricate it for the stage — and then do it.

Q.  What has been your biggest challenge?

PF:  Probably the greatest challenge to any costumer is honing good interpersonal skills. Clothing someone is obviously a very personal act and the costumer has to do everything s/he can to gain the trust of the actor, to reassure them that the goal is to augment their performance, not overshadow it or to make them look silly or inappropriate in front of their audience – unless of course the script specifically calls for it.

LH:  It has sometimes been difficult or impossible for me to lift, hang, and carry everything needed for a show.  That being said, the people in the local theatre groups for whom I’ve been a part have been tremendously supportive and helpful in getting it all done.

Q.  What is the one thing you wish audience members knew about what you do?

PF:  I wish people would realize that this really is a demanding and difficult job. Most people equate costuming with something that was created for them as a child for Halloween or pulled together by their mothers for a school play. No offense to the hard-working Mums out there but the role of a professional costume designer requires a huge array of skills, both right- and left-brained ones, as well as the temperament and abilities of a fine artist combined with those of a highly trained craftsperson…and more often than not, the patience of Job.

LH:  Sometimes I have to do the laundry.

LA Hammond is a retired attorney and freelance costume designer living in the Bellevue Park neighborhood of Harrisburg.

Paul Foltz is the Resident Costume Designer and an adjunct theatre instructor at Harrisburg Area Community College He is also the Resident Costume Designer at Theatre Harrisburg.