What is your role on this production? I am the costume, makeup and hair/wig designer. I am in charge of designing the whole aspect of costumes for the show. I do renderings of my vision for what the costumes, the makeup and the hair will be. I also add a photo collage as reference. After discussing it with the director, I then set a building schedule in which I help with construction and answer any questions pertaining to costumes. Also, I buy costume pieces for the show as well as any needed makeup and wigs. I solve any problems that arise during the dress rehearsals. I make sure that every costume is fully finished and have them ready in time for opening night.
What drew you to this production? I like the idea of the play being a historical piece. I get to do lots of research about the time and learn why they wore clothing they did. Then I make that moment in time come alive on stage with the costumes.
What is your background in theatre? I started in Santa Barbara, California, taking lots of theatre classes and volunteering to be head of wardrobe for shows. Slowly but surely, every show I worked in taught me a little bit more about costumes than the classes could teach like makeup tricks, caring for wigs, doing fast changes and rigging costumes to fit the blocking. Soon enough, I was designing costumes for shows and getting recognition for my work. After graduating with three Theatre Arts degrees, I came to see my husband’s hometown and began to look for theatre here. I was drawn to a costume building workshop that Geri Dittrich was hosting at Walterdale. I asked how I could volunteer at this theatre and right away I started helping to build costumes for some shows.
What have you learned from working on this particular show? It is sad for me to see how the indigenous people were treated and currently are treated here and in my country. With such rich cultures struggling to survive, one assumes that everyone is doing what they can to preserve them, just like when they have historical findings. However, they still use cultures’ ignorance in order to deteriorate it. I guess the damage caused in hardly noticed until it has happened and then we look back on it.
What were your biggest challenges on this show? The most enjoyable aspect? One of my biggest challenges was beading and building the hide jacket. I had not built anything with real leather before and I found that beading is really time consuming. What I enjoyed from working in this show was working with a bunch of great crew and actors and seeing the whole show coming together.
Check out Burning Vision and Yvonne's wonderful designs onstage now at Walterdale (show runs to April 20th).
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