JEFF AWARD NOMINATION - BEST COSTUME DESIGN!

I've been nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Costume Design for my Driving Miss Daisy design at First Folio Shakespeare Festival!

'THE BIRTHDAY PARTY'

Petey, Stanley, and Meg at breakfast, ACT 1

Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party opens this Monday, July 28 at Signal Ensemble Theatre.

The Birthday Party is one of my favorite plays, and I was very happy to have the opportunity to design costumes for director Aaron Snook's production.

The costumes and set for this production were very naturalistic. We wanted to create a realistic world in which Goldberg and McCann could create a psychological disturbance, but leave the surface in Meg and Petey's home unchanged. Goldberg and McCann's disturbances were underscored by Julie Ballard's lighting design.

Meg and Petey at breakfast, ACT 1

The color scheme for Melania Lancy's set was grayed cream and beige - a dried up and withered palette. This made an excellent backdrop for my costumes. Meg, Petey, and Stanley's colors were moldy and deteriorating while still keeping their vibrancy.

Stanley and Petey wore mainly plaids and stripes. These patterns created a barred in and jailed aura around the characters.

Petey and Stanley, ACT 1

McCann and Stanley, ACT 2

I gave Meg a boldly floral teal dress for Act 1 and 3. The scooped collar and large flowers gave Meg an agelessly youthful appearance; yet the blocked and linear layout of the flowers added to the overall trapped feeling of the play.

I wanted Meg's party dress to look like a little girls 'special dress-up dress'. I knew at once that it needed to have a puffy skirt, a large bow, and some sort of rhinestoned brooch, all adding to a youthful air while staying in the same vibrant molding color scheme.

Meg's house dress ACT 1 & 3 and party dress ACT 2

Goldberg and McCann wear dark suits, ties, and black fedoras - a uniform complete with small insignia lapel pins. When Stanley enters in Act 3 McCann and Goldberg have dressed him in this same uniform, although Stanley's uniform is slightly ill-fitting - as though it has been years since he has last worn it.

McCann and Goldberg, ACT 1

Lulu entered in Act 1 in a sweet red floral jumper and white cardigan; the epitome of the girl next door. Lulu was the only character who came from the outside world, grounded in a truly natural, 'modern' reality. Meg, Petey, and Stanley have a very closed off existence, very little contemporary influence from the outside world, few visitors, and Stanley rarely leaves the house. I dressed Lulu more flashy colors that the other characters. She brought life, and fresh air, into Meg and Petey's house that could only be illustrated with a cheerful floral dress and girlish sweater.

Stanley and Lulu, ACT 1

When Lulu enters for Stanley's birthday party she is wearing a much more mature and fitted red dress. This vibrant sexy, yet sweet dress expresses Lulu desire to both attract and retain her girlish innocence.

The party with McCann, Lulu, Stanley, Goldberg, and Meg, ACT 2

Some reviews:

"The design team — Melania Lancy (set), Julie E. Ballard (lights), Elsa Hiltner (costumes) and sound (Anthony Ingram) — has done impeccable work."

-The Birthday Party' Celebrates a Perfect Moment, by Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times

"Snook is also measurably assisted by Elsa Hiltner’s elegiac costuming, Melania Lancey’s quaint set and Julie Ballard’s moody lighting. All three elements add up to create a world of lyrical realism."
-'The Birthday Party', by Brian Kirst, Chicago Free Press

"The production values, always high caliber in a Signal Ensemble show, are evidenced by Melania Lancy’s quaint cottage-like set with Elsa Hiltner’s costume design together with Julie E. Ballard’s lighting and Anthony Ingram’s sound design."
-'The Birthday Party', by Tom Williams, ChicagoCritic.com

Intelligent Birthday Party; Partial 'Torch Song', by Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune

'The Birthday Party'
-Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago

'The Birthday Party'
-Jack Haffenkamp, Edge-Chicago

'The Birthday Party' (Signal Ensemble Theatre)
-Rob Kozlowski from The Rob Kozlowski Chicago Theatre and Vintage Film Medicine Show

Tension Crashes Intriguing 'Birthday Party'
-by Barbara Vitello, The Daily Herald

Theatre: 'The Birthday Party'
-Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times

'DANCING AT LUGHNASA'

Dancing At Lughnasa is a memory play; and I wanted the costume design to aid in the overall feeling of deeply ingrained, yet misty memories. I used a soft color palette and delicate patterns in the costumes. All of the costumes were very gentle. Gentle in texture, color, and design.

With the exception of Kate's school suit, the sisters wore similar floral dresses, cardigans, and aprons. Simple touches added to their costumes gave them a sense of individuality - but in a struggling household special individual items would be minimal.

Some Dancing At Lughnasa reviews:

'Dancing at Lughnasa' Opens up in Oak Park
-Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune

Oak Park Festival Theatre - 'Dancing At Lughnasa' from The Oak Park Journal

'Dancing At Lughnasa'
-Tom Williams from ChicagoCritic.com

'MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING' - Jeff Recommended!

Antonio, Hero, Don Pedro, Beatrice, and Benedick at the masked ball

First Folio's Jeff Recommended Much Ado About Nothing opened last Friday at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook and runs through August 17.

Director Michael Goldberg and I discussed several possible time periods to set the play in. We needed a time period that a free and independent woman like Beatrice could fit in to; but also one that held women's honor at the highest level - where death would be preferable to living with the shame of infidelity. I also felt that it was important to choose a time period with a flowing, loose, and pretty silhouette. I didn't want a time period that had stiff corsets or large amounts of fabric on either the women or the men. Since it's an outdoor summer show it was important to me to keep the fabrics light, cool, and breathable for both the women and the men. The characters within Much Ado had an ease about them that perfectly fit the Regency period.

Beatrice and Benedick

All of the women's dresses, overlays, aprons, petticoats, and corset-lettes were made for the show by my assistant Lucie Adler and myself, with the exception of one ensemble dress that I rented. The historical color scheme for Regency women is very light, if not white. I wanted a little color in their costumes for theatricality's sake, and designed Ursula, Maraget, and ensemble women's dresses in a very light color pallet of light blue, soft green, and a touch of yellow. Beatrice and Hero's costumes were in light creams. This slight distinction in color pallet kept all the women historically in the correct period, but also allowed Hero and Beatrice's dresses to pop a bit more on stage than the other women's.

'Elsa Hiltner's handsome ethereal gowns lend an air of easy elegance to the ladies of Messina.'

-Kerry Reid, Strong First Folio Cast Delivers This Summer's Straight-Up 'Ado', The Chicago Tribune, July 16th, 2008

Sketch of men's military uniforms

Napoleon was the main influence for the men's military uniforms. There are two factions within the military men's group: Don Pedro's men, and Don John's men. I distinguished between these two groups (who were essentially wearing the same uniform) by the color of the waist sash. Don Pedro's loyal men wore gold sashes, while Don John's men wore jealous olive-black sashes. Within the groups individual men wore their uniforms slightly differently. As the Prince, Don Pedro had a more regal coat, military medals, and more lace on his shirt and jabot. The other men's coats had front flaps that could be fully buttoned, folded down, or left completely open. This offered a wide variety of looks within the same uniform. For example, Borachio - Don John's often drunk companion, wore his uniform with very little regard, often with the coat flap fully unbuttoned or discarding the coat all together.

I also wanted the men to arrive in full uniform, and then begin to loose pieces as they became more relaxed and at home on Leonato's estate. In several scenes in the garden the men do not wear their coats or jabots. This furthered the feeling of ease at Leonato's house, and created a clear difference between Claudio and Don Pedro's attitudes towards Leonato and his family before the first wedding and later in the play. After Claudio hears of Hero's infidelity he looses his former ease and wears his full uniform.

Benedick, Don Pedro, and Claudio in full uniform

I created a complementing neutral pallet for the ensemble men, and used the same pallet with more contrast for Leonato and Antonio's costumes. I pulled richer fabrics for Leonato's costume, yet allowed the pieces to be worn in the same relaxed way that the soldiers wear their uniform, creating a strong sense of ease on Leonatos' estate.

Extra costume pieces were added over the ensemble men's base to create characters such as the watch or gardeners.

When I began designing Dogberry's costume I had a lot of discussions with Director Michael Goldberg on what direction he wanted to take the character. I created a costume based on our discussions, but allowed to make changes on the design based on the rehearsal process. One of my favorite aspects of Dogberry's costume was the old, dirty powdered wig I gave him for the trial of Conrade and Borachio. That wig summed up Dogberry's attitude about himself as an upstanding citizen and a gentleman of style - and clearly would not have the effect on others that he was assuming it would. In the end very little needed to be changed from our original discussions.

First Folio Shakespeare Festival has posted a video clip of Much Ado About Nothing on their site.

Here are some reviews (I'll post more as they come):

"Elsa Hiltner's handsome ethereal gowns lend an air of easy elegance to the ladies of Messina."
-from Strong First Folio Cast Delivers This Summer's Straight-Up 'Ado' by Kerry Reid from The Chicago Tribune (July 16th 2008)

"Goldberg updates the play to the Regency Era, which is reflected exclusively in Elsa Hiltner's dapper, early 19th-century costumes: dark tailcoats and buttery yellow trousers tied with gold sashes for the noblemen; simple, pale blue and off-white empire dresses for the women; and rough-hewn, earth-tone garb for the middle-class rustics."
-from Barbara Vitello's First Folio Presents A Merry 'Much Ado' The Daily Herald (July 18, 2008)

" Make a mental note of the beautiful Regency-era clothing by costumer Elsa Hiltner;..."
-from THEATRE 'Much Ado About Nothing' by Scott C. Morgan from Windy City Times (July 23, 2008)

First Folio's 'Much Ado' A Clever, Funny Staging by Sandy Illian Bosch from Pioneer Local (July 17th 2008)

Terrific Humor from an Outstanding Cast Propels 'Much Ado About Nothing' by Tom Williams from ChicagoCritic.com

"Nick Sandy’s stylized fight choreography is highly effective, as are Elsa Hiltner’s delicious period costumes."
-from 'Much Ado' At First Folio by Randy Hardwick, ChicagoCritic.com

Review 'Much Ado About Nothing' At First Folio by Scott Zacher from Chicago Theatre Blog, July 24, 2008

Photos thanks to David Rice.

ABBA - DANCING QUEENS

Chicago's Gay Pride Parade was last weekend - and as Spectacle Costume Shop manager I designed the costumes for Columbia College Chicago's 'ABBA - Dancing Queens' themed float.


After meeting with Columbia's LGBTA advisors, I designed two styles of costumes: a one-piece jumpsuit with wide flowing legs; and a crop top matched with either a mini skirt or hot pants. We decided to keep the costumes all in white with highlights of several of Columbia's school colors. Both styles of costume were further unified by an irridencent cape lined in Columbia's colors.

We had almost thirty Columbia students and staff costumed for the float. And we received an Honorable Mention for our float.

Here are more photos of the float posted online by others:
From Columbia College Chicago
A really great photo of the whole float!
Another float photo with a bit of a close-up of one of the costumes.
And another float photo!

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.

MANIFEST 2008

'Wire and Ice' dresses with screen tutus and headdress

The theme of this year's Manifest Spectacle was dreams. This gave us a lot of room to design some really creative costumes! Our line up included three 5 foot diameter floating jelly fish, over-sized animals being lead on a leash by children, businessmen with tentacles for feet and hands, and many others.

'Trashabethans' in the parade line up

Within the theme of dreams we wanted to use reusable materials. We used trash bags as the fabric of our Trashabethan costumes. We created our trash bag fabric by adhering trash bags to a muslin backing. The hoop skirts, bustles, panniers, and women's headdresses have a chicken wire and bamboo understructure and are tagged with strips of trash bag. Despite the wire and wood understructure, these costumes are very light and manageable. The men's epaulettes are made in a similar style. The ruffs were made with old Manifest fliers from years past.

The Trashabethan men wore chicken wire and mache deer head mounted on bicycle helmets.

My design sketch of the 'Trashabethan Deer Head Men'

View the Manifest 2008 video!

ARTICLE FROM COLUMBIA COLLEGE'S theLoop

I was featured in theLoop, Columbia College Chicago's newspaper, last week. I work as Columbia College's Spectacle Costume Shop Manager and Costume Designer.

Manifest, Columbia's end of the year celebration, was Friday, May 16th - I'll be posting photos and sketches of the designs I made for the parade.

Chicago's Pride Parade is the next event I will be designing for at Columbia.

Here's the link to the full article:
A Behind-the-Scenes look at Manifest Spectacle Costume Designs

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.

'DRIVING MISS DAISY' - Jeff Nominated Costume Design!

Driving Miss Daisy is a memory play. Set designer Angie Miller used old picture frames to adorn the neutral flats that made up the stage. The car was suggested with two simple benches, and other key furniture pieces were brought in for the living room and office scenes.

I wanted the costumes to aid in the journey between an adversarial relationship to life-long friendship between Daisy and Hoke. I began the design process by creating a color plot that tracked Daisy, Hoke, and Boolie through their developments in the play. Daisy and Hoke begin the play at either end of the color spectrum. Hoke is in a dark suit, and Daisy is in a yellow floral day dress. As the catalyst of their friendship, Boolie lives in the middle of the spectrum wearing browns and tans.

As the play and their relationship progresses they move toward each other on the color spectrum, Daisy's colors mellow as she ages, and Hokes soften also. The script spans nearly 25 years, so many costume changes (as well as makeup and hair changes) had to be made to invoke the change in time and age.

In the final scene the characters and their costume's colors have grown very close to one another.

Here are some reviews:

'Driving Miss Daisy' Gets a Tune Up at First Folio - Daily Herald
First Folio Switches Gears to Present Pulitzer Prize-Winning 'Driving Miss Daisy' - The Doings Hinsdale
'Driving Miss Daisy' Fulfills Satire, Sentiment - The Doings Hinsdale
'Driving Miss Daisy' - ChicagoCritic.com

I have been nominated for a Jeff Award for my Driving Miss Daisy costume design!

Photos thanks to David Rice.

'PIRATES OF PENZANCE'

Pirates of Penzance ran this weekend at North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka, IL. This was the first high school show I have designed as a professional costume designer. There were nearly fifty students in the cast, including 27 'daughters'! I wanted to keep the world of the play bright and colorful, while at the same time creating contrast between the rough lives of the pirates and the innocence of the daughters. Like the most productions of Pirates of Penzance, I dressed in daughters in pastels. However, I kept the pastels vibrant and accented the colors of the daughters' skirts with slightly darker waist sashes. The pirates' color scheme was darker and more shadowed, but I chose jewel-tones that brought vibrant color into their clothing. Frederic and The Pirate King were accented with white - a color not seen on any of the other pirates. The police uniforms were royal blue, rather than the more realistic dark navy.

Having so many actors in the cast posed certain challenges since I was working without an assistant or costume shop. I also knew that I would have to rent the police uniforms, and had to set aside most of the budget for the rental fee. The daughters wore elastic waist-banded skirts in a variety of pastels (some of which I made and others I borrowed), white high-necked blouses and waist sashes to conceal the elastic waistband in the skirts. I was able to pull all of the pirates' costumes with a few additions that I thrifted and shopped.

AFTER DARK AT THE ART INSTITUTE - EDWARD HOPPER

Several times a year The Art Institute of Chicago hosts After Dark at the Art Institute - an evening event centered around the current exhibition with live music, drinks, hors' dourves, and theatre by Collaboraction.

The current exhibit is a collection of Edward Hopper's work. Collaboraction created living replicas of some of Hopper's most iconic paintings. I dressed the actors to match the people they were portraying.

'JEEVES INTERVENES' - Jeff Recommended!

Jeff Recommended Jeeves Intervenes opened at First Folio Shakespeare Festival this weekend to full houses and rave reviews!

Jeeves Intervenes is a hilarious adaptation based on P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series.
Hapless Bertie Wooster is in the grips of his Aunt Agatha's talons as he becomes entangled in an unwanted engagement to the girlishly romantic Gertrude Winklesworth-Bode. Bertie's old prep-school chum, Eustace Bassington-Bassington, is caught deceiving his Uncle Rupert at the same time as he tries to win Gertrude as his own. ...and just as events seem beyond repair, Bertie's ingenious valet, Jeeves, smooths over all "misapprehensions" and dissipates any hard feelings.

While staying within the style and silhouette of the 1920s, I used the costumes to further the comedy of the play.

Jeeves is dressed in blacks, grays, and white in the unofficial uniform of an English valet.

Bertie and Eustace wear pin-striped suits, typical of young English men "cursed with too much money, too little character, and virtually no brain whatsoever" (as Aunt Agatha would put it.) Bertie's navy suit and red tie are brighter and reflect with bold contrast Bertie's attitude towards his life and duties, while the more unassertive Eustace wears a slightly nerdy green sweater vest and pale yellow tie under his gray suit.

'Jeeves Intervenes' is full of warm, vibrant, and lively characters set against a cold background. Gertrude is a very pink and girlish character with a very straight edge. For the first act, Gertrude is in a shorted pleated pink dress, a sparkly sweater and fur wrap.

I built a peachy-pink gown for Gertrude in the second act.
"Set designer Angela Miller's ice blue and snow white accents make Bertie's upscale, London flat suitably wintry, while costume designer Elsa Hiltner injects a shock of peach (for flirty Gertie) among the proper gray pinstripes." -from Barbara Vitello's review in The Daily Herald.

Aunt Agatha's clothing is as fussy as she is. I used high collars to illustrate Aunt Agatha's uptight view of social roles. I added a large high standing fur collar to Agatha's overcoat to aid in her dominating presence.

For both Aunt Agatha and Uncle Rupert I used line and styles from the turn of the century as well as the 1920s to influence their costumes. This helped to reflect their admiration for traditional values and family hierarchy.

Uncle Rupert arrives to London wearing a frock coat and top hat over his trousers, shirt, and vest. In the second act, as Rupert is on his way to a military reunion dinner, he enters in a kilt, and tail coat covered in military medals.

Here are some reviews for Jeeves Intervenes:
ChicagoCritic.com, 2/2/08 - 'Jeeves Intervenes'
Chicago Tribune, 2/19/08- 'Jeeves' brightens a dull winter
The Doings-Hinsdale, 2/14/08 -'Jeeves' is the next best thing to having your own gentleman's gentleman
The Daily Herald, 2/18/08 -First Folio pulls off sharp revival of comedy of manners
SteadstyleChicago.com - 'Jeeves Intervenes'
Windy City Times, 2/13/08 - 'Jeeves Intervenes'

Jeeves Intervenes runs through March 2 at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook, IL. For tickets, and to see more photos, please see the First Folio website!

Photos thanks to David Rice.