Costume Rendering for Santa Fe Opera, Die Fledermaus 2017 The craziest thing happened this week that was such a delightful surprise. A little back story: At the beginning of the pandemic, the Costume Industry Coalition , led by Brian Blythe, was born as a way to support NY based makers and artisans that are part of the theatrical ecosystem. So many highly gifted technicians and artisans are independent contractors or small businesses and every one of them, like any small busi

Things I've missed: the power of the 5 minute check-in & in person meetings. How much subtler communication and community building has...

Classroom shift to process, not result. A partner to the previous “Deadline” post. So much of my own education involved projects with a...

Hard to write a couple of times a month when burn-out is high, the sands are shifting, and we are just so damned tired of this pandemic....

We had such a good time building a community of costume educators last, we decided to have another workshop this year! In this year's...

When I was in grad school I had this big "ah-ha" moment. I didn't really understand how to draw a suit collar & lapel until I drafted and...

After nearly two years, there is a virtual public gallery synthesizing the radial symmetry prompt developed during my Winter 2019...

And it's a doozy! For this semester of remote learning I created 45 demonstration videos (a couple have been shared here on the blog). I...

For the last two weeks, I've participated in two workshops with the Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival. The first workshop,...

As part of the Design Rendering course I teach, one of the last assignments before students start their final projects is a costume...

Pretty small group of folks who read these posts, but I want to use this space to amplify the work of the Costume Industry Coalition....

Between all the meetings, teaching that takes twice as long, fires to put out, worry for the industry, and worry for the future, I've...

Back in May, Chloe Chapin & I co-led a 4 day workshop on Costume History Pedagogy. One participant, Michelle Souza, wrote a lovely...

This pandemic is taking its toll on everything. I have no idea what things will be like on the other side of this, but it will be...

Week two continued with more body carving, and then lectures & demonstrations about how Mirek created out kits and the various types of joints used based on puppet design and function. Then we learned about assembling and stringing our puppets to the control. Lastly, we met with the other group to show and tell our puppets. The upcoming August group of students joined us to see what is in store! After I finished carving the limbs, I focused on the body. For my ballerina desi

On my "bucket list" for years has been to participate in a marionette carving workshop at Puppets in Prague. I'm on their mailing list...

Suddenly another month has passed in 2020. The Costume History Pedagogy Workshop wrapped up and there are plans to continue the work and...

Well, suddenly another month has passed. We are all under the stress of dealing with the virus and social distancing. I've been very busy...

My paternal grandmother was born in 1914 and lived to meet a fifth generation (not to mention my daughter in the fourth generation)...

Well, a lot has certainly been happening these past few weeks. We are living in world that is hard to describe right now. I fear for the...