For those of you following along...This is our last week in the Duderstadt Design Lab. It's been a great home base and I've appreciated meeting all the curious, smart folks who work, teach, and create there. That last batch of new scarves is in hand being hemmed, & we are heat pressing the last few items today, poised for Art Fair.
I've started work on both La Boheme and The Grapes of Wrath as part of the fall University Productions season. I gave my new database a trail run for both of these projects, and it was awesome! I didn't have to "remember" anything. I used some date filters, but it was also helpful to just browse the "best bets" board, and then the main list. It was sort of like going to a used bookstore, but because I had already curated what I knew to be helpful in some way, it was all good stuff. For each show, I created a bibliography capturing the filtered searches of each resource I found helpful.
The Grapes of Wrath must take place as written, in 1938. There is a wealth of visual information out there as photographers were hired by the government to document this time. As evocative as many of those images are, I wanted to dig deeper, past the famous ones. So, for example, linking to the NYPL Picture Collection from my database, I searched "Great Depression," "Dust Bowl," and "Farm Security Administration." Those filtered searches were links I included on my bibliography. Then, I downloaded individual images that are particularly helpful and specific to the costume design. I used the same process for The Library of Congress, Berg Costumes, and other larger databases. Some institutions already have good collections on the topic, such as CSU Bakersfield. Next I'll get into the weeds being sure to "solve" the demands of the script- we need gas station attendants, guards, used car salesmen, etc...it's a research scavenger hunt!
More on La Boheme later this month.
