Rockin' the Cradle

I recently designed costumes for a great show, The Cradle Will Rock, at Theater Ten Ten. It is from 1937, written by Marc Blitzstein under the auspices of the Federal Theater Project. It is my third Blitzstein production, and I have to say, each one has garnered me favorable reviews. I guess dark, gritty and periovocative* is my forte.

I feel a bit shy about posting reviews, but I love this review: the whole time I was working on the show I wasn't sure that what I was doing would work and I was really doubting myself. So to see that this writer really got it makes me so happy!

"Viviane Galloway’s charming, nearly comically conservative costumes (nothing is cut above the knee or below the collarbone) tie into the show's theme with superb accuracy, as does David Fuller’s directing."

One of the hardest characters to costume was Moll, who is arrested for Solicitation. She, like so many working girls, is out trying to earn enough money to live on because her factory job just doesn't pay enough. So I wanted to convey her sweetness, and her slight naiveté, and to show that her heart really isn't in what she is doing, but still make it obvious to a potential John that she was looking to make a buck. These days everyone thinks of a hooker as decked out in platforms and micro-minis, putting it all out there, but that look wasn't going to serve the story here at all.

I highly recommend seeing this production if you can. If you can't, read about the original production, directed by Orson Wells, produced by John Houseman, and shut down hours before it's opening! It is such a great and inspiring story in itself.

*like anachro-period, but even more vaguely so.