LUMINOUS FIELDS

I created the costume design for Luminous Fields, an interactive video installation designed by Luftwerk.

  Photos thanks to Peter Tsai

ALGORITHMS - THE DANCE CENTER

I designed costumes for Algorithms, a piece devised by Paige Cunningham and Erin Feiler at Columbia College Chicago's Dance Center in May.

Algorithms focused on the mutual influence humans and technology have upon each other and the tension that arises from that relationship.  I designed costumes made of clear vinyl with accents of El Wire.

Photos by William Frederking

AFTER DARK AT THE ART INSTITUTE - KONSTANTIN GRCIC - DECISIVE DESIGN

I've designed costumes for Collaboraction at the Art Institute of Chicago's After Dark at the Art Institute - Konstantin Grcic - Decisive Design coming up on Friday, December 11th.




The event was featured on Time Out Chicago's blog. Check out the photos.

AFTER DARK AT THE ART INSTITUTE - MODERN ART WING

I designed costumes for the Art Institute of Chicago's After Dark at the Art Institute with Collaboraction.

The event was on Friday, October 2 - and here's a promo video for the event, featuring the costumes that my assistants and I created.

A very special thanks to Assistants Kelly Coll and Kelsey Rhodes!

'KATTYWAMPUS' - SKETCHBOOK 2009

Here's a video clip of Kattywampus from Collaboraction's SKETCHBOOK 2009. Kattywampus was devised by actor/choreographer Joseph Ravens. I created the spandex pouch unit that he wore for the piece.

'PARA CARMEN' VIDEO - SKETCHBOOK 2009

Para Carmen was devised by Sandra Delgado for Collaboraction's SKETCHBOOK 2009. I designed and built the period costumes.

SKETCHBOOK 2009 - 'NEW AMERICAN FABLE'

Collaboraction's SKETCHBOOK 2009 - New American Fable opened last night to a packed house at Chicago's Building Stage! Seven new short plays and seven devised works were chosen to be part of this year's festival. There is a huge variety in the types of theatre, dance, mime, and movement pieces that make up this year's festival. I designed all sorts of costumes ranging from space suit liners and turn of the century migrant farmers to a WWI German Zeppelin pilot and a Harajuku inspired girl gang.

With over 200 artists involved in SKETCHBOOK 2009, the design process was extremely collaborative. Each of the individual pieces are all so unique, yet as a whole the festival needed a design that flowed through out - unifying the pieces into a collective work of theatre. I kept an eye of wonder in all of the costumes I designed. Something new and fresh, or slightly magical that gave a new perspective on what could be fairly ordinary. Since there is such a variety in performances I interpreted this differently for each piece.

In Para Carmen - a choreographed dance based on Lhasa de Sela's piece 'De cara a la pared' - I used a whimsical, light, and ethereal palette to create the early 20th century migrant farm worker's clothing. A light yellow bonnet shared by 3 dancers signified the passing of one woman's lifetime as it flashed before her in her death.

In What Am I Supposed To Be I created caricatured, storybook-like costumes for many characters, including a blushing bride, an experimental scientist, a convict on death row, and an American soldier. But unlike a storybook, these characters were all not what their costume suggested they were. The bride was nervous and unhappy, the scientist's experiment had gone horribly wrong, the convict was not just waiting for his death, and the soldier struggled with society's simultaneous expectations and neglect.

For Beatrice and Beau I coordinated outfits to create the picturesque cute couple. Both were completely dressed in very light colors - creating an other-worldly tableau. There was also a care-free ease to their costumes which contributed to the "roles" the characters were forced to play within the piece and highlighted their disillusionment at the end of the play.

Here's a short video from WGNTV in Chicago!

Tweets in Collaboractions' Sketchbook fun to follow'by Hedy Weiss for the Chicago Sun-Times

Theatre Review: Sketchbook Festival by Nina Metz for The Chicago Tribune

I will be posting more photos and information of my designs in the next few weeks.

Special thanks to my crew of wonderful and talented assistants:
Bethany Kelly
Kelly Coll
Kelsey Rhodes
Krystal Troutman
Stephanie McNair
Stephanie Paradiso

Don't miss SKETCHBOOK 2009 - New American Fable - there's no other theatre like it playing in Chicago. The shows run through May 10th. Use promotion code 165 for $3 off any tickets at Collaboraction.org.

'PARA CARMEN' - SKETCHBOOK 2009

Para Carmen is one of seven devised works in Collaboraction's annual SKETCHBOOK. Para Carmen is a dance piece created by Sandra Delgado, and is inspired by Lhasa de Sela's piece 'De cara a la pared'.

Michelle Nolan photographed the dancers last weekend.

Photograph courtesy of Michelle Nolan Photography.

SKETCHBOOK opens this weekend at Collaboraction, April 18th and runs through May 10th. Get your tickets now, and use promotion code 165 for discounts!

MANIFEST 2009 - MOVED DANCE GROUP

Here is a sneak peak of the costumes I've designed for MOVED - Columbia College Chicago's dance group. They will be participating in Columbia's Manifest Spectacle Fortuna Parade on Friday, May 15th.


As Spectacle Costume Shop Manager at Columbia, I lead a crew of student employees to design and build the costumes for the Manifest Spectacle Fortuna Parade, as well as many other college-wide events. For MOVED, I created a structured paper mache breastplate made out of tissue paper and paired it with a flowy chiffon A-line dress.

Photos courtesy of Alexis Ellers
Styling by Jennifer Friedrich, the Spectacle Fortuna Artistic Director
Hair and Makeup by Jennifer Friedrich and Tania Gonzalez

MANIFEST 2008 VIDEO

I am the Spectacle Costume Shop Manager at Columbia College Chicago. Along with a crew of students I design and build spectacle costumes for college events including new student Convocation, gallery openings, department events, Pride, and Manifest. Manifest is a college-wide urban arts festival that covers Chicago's south loop, celebrating senior and grad student work.

Here is the video of last year's Manifest, including the Spectacle Fortuna parade.



Don't miss Manifest this year - Friday, May 15th!

BIZBASH CHICAGO MAGAZINE

Here's the BizBash Chicago article about their Chicago Launch Party event that I costumed last month.

Plus there are some more photos on their website.

BIZBASH CHICAGO LAUNCH PARTY

I designed costumes for Collaboraction for the BizBash Chicago Launch Party. BizBash is an event design publication and they've just opened a Chicago section on their website. The event was all white.

We performed a flash mob dance piece to Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet" (click here for Bjork's music video), the same dance piece as at After Dark at the Art Institute - Ed Ruscha. The main difference was in the costumes. I had dressed the After Dark dancers as 1960s gas station attendants - for BizBash the dancers were dressed as the caterers, cooks, and waiters at the event, all in white. There was also a core group of five performers dressed as angelic guests. They created a tableaux at the main entrance.

AFTER DARK AT THE ART INSTITUTE - ED RUSCHA

I designed costumes for another After Dark at the Art Institute with Collaboraction and The Art Institute of Chicago.

Ed Ruscha is most well known for his pop iconic photographs.

The exhibit at the Art Institute: 'Ed Ruscha and Photography' focused on his earlier photographs and the photo books he created. Much of his earlier work is comprised of photos of cityscapes, gas stations, parking lots, and city streets.

For the event we created a large scale choreographed dance on the grand staircase to Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet". A dancer dressed as a museum janitor mopped the stairway landing while listening to head phones. 20 gas station attendants appeared and began polishing the railings and scrubbing the staircase. As the refrain picked up, they leaped into dance in a very theatrical Buzbee Berkley style.














I dressed the gas station attendants in neutral and iconic navy blue pants, blue collared shirt, white socks, and black shoes. Each had an orange rag, which was used to polish the stair case, and an orange name badge - all saying "Ed". Many of the women wore orange hair bandannas.

To create focus and to contrast the blues of the gas station attendants surrounding him, I dressed the janitor in tan coveralls and completed the costume with the orange accessories and "Ed" name badge.

Here's the link to Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet" music video.