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As an audience, we kind of take the clothes the actors
wear in a play for granted. If it’s a period piece, we expect to see them
dressed in period costumes. If it’s a contemporary work we expect to see the
cast dressed in clothes we’d see on real people in the world outside the
theater doors.
But it doesn’t just happen. Whether it’s a Roman
soldier in full armor or a secretary in an office, without the hard work of
a costume designer, the audience wouldn’t be able to surrender themselves to
the show as completely as they should.
“People think we just go to a costume shop and pick
clothes off the rack,” explained veteran costume designer Miranda Hoffman,
who created the costumes for A Civil War Christmas, Well, and Mauritius for
the Huntington, as well as for the Broadway production of Well. “That may
work with some of the costumes, but a lot of them have to be designed and
made for each production, based on the text, the director’s vision and the
research I do. Every project is different depending on the show.”
Her latest designs will be seen in the Huntington
Theatre Company’s new production of Bus Stop, William Inge’s classic comedy
about a motley crew of strangers -- including a stubborn, lovestruck cowboy
and the nightclub singer he hopes to marry -- stranded by a snowstorm
outside of Kansas City.
Hoffman said her job begins with the script and with a conversation with the
director to see what they envision in terms of dressing the actors. She then
takes what she’s learned and starts sketching ideas for costumes, ideas that
she then brings back to the director to give he or she a visual idea of what
the finished clothes will look like.
Then the real work begins.
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