The "IT" shows of 2010

The Cradle Will Rock was just nominated by the New York Innovative Theater Awards for OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL, directed by David Fuller with Judith Jarosz as Artistic Director..! Kudos to Theater Ten Ten!

From The Cradle Will Rock

Retro Production's recent production of The Desk Set also received nominations. Nominees are Kristen Vaughan (Actress in a Leading Role), Rebecca Cunningham (Set Design), Viviane Galloway (Costume Design), Jeanne Travis (Sound Design), Heather E. Cunningham and Casandera Lollar (Innovative Design), and OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY! Hurray for Retro!

From Desk Set

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.

The Tempest

The Steampunk Tempest

A lot of my friends who couldn't come to see The Tempest are asking me about it, so I am posting an old entry from my myspace page:

From The Tempest

Farewell, Prospero

Today was The Tempest's last performance. It had a great run, many nice things were said, and I had a lot of fun working with this cast and crew. Shout out to Aaron Diehl--he did an awesome sound with the sound and music. I highly recommend him to anyone looking for a sound designer.

Today was the second high school talk back that we had. I love to sit in on those, because it reaffirms my faith in the next generation. These students asked such thoughtful, diverse questions, and you could tell they weren't just study guide questions, but things that these kids just really had thought about and were inquisitive about.

So, now I am thrown back onto the uncertain sea of fate--who knows where I will land next!

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The Tempest was a fun show to work on, given my interest in Steampunk. The research alone was captivating, plus I got to make some little gadgets, like this fob and monacle and a chatelaine,



and some fun costume pieces,



and I used some of Janet Bloor's silicone caulk techniques to create Caliban's costume. The idea behind Caliban's look is that he lives on the beach, under rocks, in the surf, wherever he ends up. I imagined all the detritus that washed up onto the beach sticking to him: I even had little bits of the other character's costumes sticking to him. Caliban was one of my favorite characters--I felt very sorry for him!

From The Tempest