Squad Pod: #3 Team Costume Design

My fave pic of the three of us, no competition

In this edition of Squad Pod, it is pleasure beyond describing to post audio of chats with two of my favorite people on this planet! The first chat is with costume designer for Little Shop of Horrors, Jessica Haswell. The second chat is with Brittny Mahan, who was the assistant costume designer on the show.

These two women have been instrumental peers in my time in grad school. We came in at the same time, along with our fellow colleague Toni Sterling (who’s a killer lighting designer!) three years ago. While we formed so many relationships with the rest of our peers, there is certainly something powerful about being running mates from the beginning. I think Jess and Brittny are incredible artists. I’m also blessed to know them as friends as well as colleagues, which has made working together even more of a joy.

Jess and I had actually worked together on a CRT show the previous season (Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2.) We also spent plenty of time together in our little corner of the lab, choosing to share our working space after our first year. If there is one thing that makes my chest tight when I think about the show’s cancelation, it’ the fact that we didn’t get a chance to see Jess’s costumes alive and beautiful, worn by our incredible cast. While her renderings are certainly gorgeous and definitely give you a clear idea on what her design would be, I would be lying if I didn’t also say that I’m still a little sad when thinking about how awesome they were going to be on the body. Like me, this was her MFA Project, so it did sting a little extra for us to have our last piece as grad students stopped before production. Still, chatting with Jess about her process was a joy and delight and I hope the selection of renderings shown here can give you a taste of just how talented she is. Definitely check out her website jessicahaswelldesign.com

Disclaimers, Corrections, Clarifications: As with the other episodes, we are just two artists chatting about our work and life. Anything we say is often based in opinion and our own experience and therefore nothing should be taken as a firm declarative of the “only right” or anything of that sort.

A little blurry, but I really love this picture of us!

Looks for Ya Never Know (Seymour and Do-Op Girls)

The Do-Op Girls, look for Closed for Renovation

Call Back in the Morning and Meek Shall Inherit

Super fun amazing sparkly fabric Jess was looking to use for the look in the rendering directly above

Subsequent to the Events You Just Witnessed

Look 2 for the three principles

Audrey and Orin

Act 2 Beginning Look for three principles

Sominex

Don’t Feed the Plants

Next audio we have is a chat with the indomitable Brittny Mahan, who was acting as Jess’s assistant on this show. She has also designed multiple shows at CRT (Crucible, Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Shakespeare In Love) and she is pretty much a rockstar human on every level. Definitely check out her website as well, you will never be sorry that you worked with this woman www.brittnymahan.com.

Disclaimers, Corrections, Clarifications: Again, we are just chatting about our work and our field. At one point, we do get a little into it about payment and monetary compensation for work in the professional world, and we did make a point to say we don’t get paid hourly. To be clear, assistants are often paid by the hour, we were mostly referencing designer compensation in that moment. Further to that point, we are not necessarily advocating that everything shift to hourly measures for compensation; rather that the level of work and skill that designers bring to the production should be appropriately compensated financially. This is particularly poignant for costume designers especially who have, anecdotally and historically speaking, often received the lowest pay on the creative team.

On this Episode of KP Gaffes: At one point in the recording, I say that a certain amount of time Brittny mentions is “less than a month,” when in fact the time frame she relates is a little over a month. Time is really screwy in grad school, warps the mind I swear.

Fab pic of us at the Prague Quadrennial last year

Since work stopped before we could get pictures of how Brittny’s assistance contributed to build for Little Shop, I wanted to include a couple pictures from another CRT show. This is Mystery of Edwin Drood, for which she was the costume designer

Another shot from CRT’s Mystery of Edwin Drood

Okay, now just standby for the love fest. I’m going to miss seeing these ladies all the time as I have become accustomed. Our industry is very small, so we shall certainly cross paths again. Still, I’m going to miss this loves, you were huge part of a very involved three years. We did it!!

Costume designers abroad!

I had to include this one, the drama is just perfect!

We decided that if for some reason we ever release an album, this is def the cover

My heart to you both, you made these three years amazing!!

Squad Pod: #2 A Chat with Assistant Scenic Designers (Little Shop of Horrors)

Duration: 40 Min (wish)

Duration: 11 MIN (ish)

Today is a bit of a sad day considering today would have been opening night for Little Shop of Horrors. Most days I’m at peace with events, but today feels a little more gray and upsetting. Thus, I’m partly processing that sadness with a special double feature of Squad Pod. Standby for copious amounts of gushing.

Today I feature my two incredible assistants, Amber Meadows and Ray Dondero. I don’t think I can possibly convey just how incredible these two women are as people, and how much they did to make this process a success. Assistants are absolutely the unsung ninja heroes of the design community. While the designer is busy producing content and determining how things are going to work, the assistants are a whirlwind of skilled activity producing the materials that showcase the designer’s thoughts. In my own work, I tend to load my assistants with a lot of model building and keeping after the administration on the props.

The first chat posted is with my Lead Assistant (/Associate/Lifesaver/ Boss Sprout) Amber Meadows. Truly, this woman is a marvel, and a recent friendship has grown deep and fast between us. If there is one person I knew I could rely on with full confidence and no reservation, it’s Amber. She is a first year grad student, an incredibly gifted artist, and wonderful friend. Check out her website at ambermeadowsdesign , she is going places!

Fave Pic of Amber and myself

Early Version of the Shop Built by Amber (Exterior)

Early Version of the Shop Built by Amber (Interior)

Closeup of Dentist Office Unit/ Unit and Chair kitted and built by Amber

Closeup of Final Shop/ Shop, and many of those tiny little bitty pieces were built/colored/painted/applied with very careful tweezer work by Amber

Disclaimers, Clarifications, and Corrections: These recordings are done as informal and unedited chats among friends and colleagues and therefore there are various sound quality issues that one would expect with an amateur recording (i.e. sound garble, having to stop and start because neighbors are loud etc.). Also, we carried out all model making tasks for this project SAFELY AND WITHOUT INCIDENT. Amber and I definitely make light of past mistakes where we had minor mishaps with our Exacto knives, but that was not the case in this process.

In this Episode of KP Gaffe/s: You all are now aural witnesses of one of the strangest crossed wires in my brain; every time I try to reference the movie Spinal Tap I always say Full Metal Jacket instead. I know this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever; they are two movies completely void of any similarity to each other that would excuse the mixup. Still, it happens to me every single time I try and say it and I have no explanation. So enjoy one of the many strange quirks that can come out in a conversation with me.

The next recording is a chat with my second assistant, Ray Dondero (/Superhero/Ninja Sprout). Ray and I go way back by school standards because she had been my assistant on the show right before Little Shop. That show was Wolves and we made a really fantastic team. Ray is junior working towards her BFA and she is lightening quick with everything I throw at her. Model work iss always accomplished cleanly and with care, and she did a lot of the leg work with props on both shows. Keep in mind that the props book she put together for Little Shop was a little over 60 pages and that was on top of other projects I gave her. She also accomplished some beautiful mockups of initial set dressing ideas in photoshop using early model photos. Working with Ray on my team was just as fantastic as the first time around and I highly recommend checking out her website raydondero and keeping an eye out for her on the scene as well!

A shot of me and my lovely assistant from the opening night of our first show working together Wolves

Early Dentist Unit/ Unit and Lamp built by Ray

Set Dressing Mockup/ Model staged by Ray and then she used Photoshop to place in other details and labels

Set Dressing Mockup for Act 2/ Ray used the same process described in the previous caption

Disclaimers, Clarifications, and Corrections: Aside from reiterating the earlier disclaimers, keep in mind that this particular chat was the very first recording I made. There is definitely an element of me being a little fumbly. I want to thank Ray for her enduring patience and kindness, and being willing to play the guinea pig for this part of the project.