3.      Costume Worn by UAF student Gwendolyn Brasier, as Katisha, in The Mikado, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1999.  This costume has butchered bits of a Value Village beaded evening gown sewn over the fabric painting in order to give it a look of brocade and metal embroidery.

4.      Mourning Coat and vest worn by former UAF student and community member Andrew Cassell as John Worthing, in The Importance of Being Earnest, Theatre UAF 2000.  This was worn over a white shirt and black pants with a deep violet tie as part of John’s “Mourning outfit” for the “death” of his fictitious brother Earnest.  I am displaying the coat and vest alone however, because, the sewing on this particular outfit is actually rather interesting.  My assistant Lorraine Pettit realized that the material I wanted would not hold up to stress if made normally, so she built the coat and vest so that all the seams are self-enclosed, or tape-enclosed, rendering this impossible coat material possible.

5.      Costume worn by UAF Student Heather Maas as Gwendolyn Fairfax in The Importance of Being Earnest, Theatre UAF, 2000.  The central costume metaphor for this play was that the costumes were like wedding favors:  Translucent, insubstantial, lacy, glittery, decorated with doves, rosebuds, hearts, plastic and ribbon, and if you were to unwrap them, you would find nothing of any substance inside.  So the costumes showed all the layers of Victorian underwear but no flesh.  Makeup was as white and glittery as the costumes.  Heather managed to turn the scene where she removes a single glove to try on an engagement ring into a total erotic strip-tease in this context.

6.      Costume worn by UAF Graduate Karl Kalen as King Pentheus in The Bacchae, Theatre UAF 1997.  Read the suit.  It explains Pentheus’ rigid priorities in life, which cause his tragic fall.  Read the back too.

7.      Costume worn by UAF Graduate Brett Good as Cadmus in The Bacchae, Theatre UAF 1997.  Cadmus is Pentheus elderly grandfather, who has abdicated in favor of his grandson, and joined the cult of Dionysus.  He still wears a suit, but his suit shows the nature-cult aspect of his attempt to seamlessly bridge the gap between his Dionysian Priestess daughter, and his uptight anti-Dionysian grandson.  The outfit originally also had a tie in the shape of a fish, which has been lost.

8.      Costume for the Hierophant in The Grand Tarot, UAF Student Drama Association Special Presentation, 1997.  This character represents religion, and performs a marriage in this play in an odd amalgamation of Holy-roller and Catholic style.  Weirder still, the role was taken by a tiny pregnant lady.  Even better, it worked.

9.      Costume worn by UAF graduate Amanda Williams as The Empress in The Grand Tarot, UAF Student Drama Association Special Presentation, 1997.  The Empress represents the female aspect both in the sense of sexuality and as an authority figure.  She and the Emperor (male equivalent) have a boom chuhka-chuka coo-che dance where they both wiggle their hips with their matching padded side hoops and bare midriffs.

10.  Costume worn by UAF graduate Amanda Williams as The Angel in The Grand Tarot, UAF Student Drama Association Special Presentation, 1997.  At the end of the play, the actress playing the Empress transforms from a sexualized, corporeal form (Empress), to a spiritual form (The Angel), representative of the souls of all the characters, and by extension, all living things.  She switches costumes and arises out of the center of the group in her new garments and sings a solo for the finale of the play.

11.  Costume worn by UAF graduate Tony Evans as Monastatos in The Magic Flute, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1998.  The amazingly garish pattern on the neck of this garment was found on a pre-existing t-shirt bought for a few dollars at Value Village.  The entire costume is built onto this t-shirt.  The beaded animal print swag was made from parts of a top found at a Salvation Army store for $4.

12.  Costume worn by Thomas Meano as Tamino in The Magic Flute, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1998.  The hieroglyphics on the flap on the front of the armor read “Tamino”.  All the hieroglyphics used on any of the costumes in this show, including the hundreds spray-painted onto the chorus that only showed up under black-light, say things that make sense in the context of the show and the character wearing the costume.

13.  Costume worn by Fairbanks community member Amy Wendt as Miss Julie in Miss Julie, Theatre UAF, 2000.  This costume shows a rather subtle use of spray dyeing to give slight highlight and shadow and age to a garment.

14.  Jacket worn by Fairbanks community member Bruce Hanson as King in A Russian Christmas Tale, Theatre UAF, 1990.  This is a more elaborate paint job (feel free to touch) of a prisoner uniform in a Siberian gulag.  The twinkle stuff on the shoulders represented ice and snow.  This costume was originally made in plain white, and then layers of dye and paint in about a dozen colors were sprayed and brushed on in layers.  While a lot of the subtlety was lost over the years when it had to be washed, you can still get an idea of how much richer a “gray” color you can create on stage with paint, than simply by buying a gray fabric.

15.  Costume worn by UAF student Michael Karoly as the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, Theatre UAF, 1999. This costume was originally built to sit on it’s own mushroom in which the legs were encased, but was modified in 2001 for a later production of Alice where the Caterpillar ran around on stage.

16.  Costume worn by UAF graduate Tony Evans as The God Dionysus in The Bacchae, Theatre UAF, 1997.  Dionysus spends most of the The Bacchae running around in disguise as a comely young man who is a priest of his own cult (and general chick magnet.)  In the last scene however he returns in full scary deity mode full of sound and fury.  So we made him a “sound suit” of twigs that makes noise when he moves, and a huge headdress that made him two feet taller.  The suit weighs 20 lbs. And the head piece 2 lbs. And the actor actually LEAPED about the stage in it (splendid man)!

17.  Headpiece worn by UAF Graduate Jason Strid, as Uncle Sam in Yahoo Nation, Theatre UAF, 2001.  Uncle Sam is supposed to be tall and skinny.  However, it is never enough just to cast a tall skinny actor in the role, even if the actor is, like Jason Strid,  7’1”.  That just is an opportunity to make the tallest skinniest Uncle Sam on record.  So we made a weirdly proportioned suit that “stretched” his apparent height more and added this headpiece, giving us a 9’ tall Uncle Sam.

18.  Breasts worn by UAF student Ben Thompson as Lady Bracknell, in The Importance of Being Earnest, Theatre UAF, 2000.  With translucent costumes for Earnest I very much wanted to underline that gender was a construct of clothing, especially in the case of lady Bracknell who was played by a man.  When I found a plastic light cage, that when opened, almost exactly replicated the form of a 1900 wire frame of a bust improver, I knew I had found a perfect object to serve as Lady B’s breasts, visible under her dress.

·        The Costume Exhibit continues in the Regents Great Hall:

19.  Mask-Headpiece worn by UAF graduate Tracy Campbell as The Statue of Liberty in Yahoo Nation, Theatre UAF, 2001.  This headpiece lights up.

20.  Crown worn by UAF student Michael Karoly as John (playing Creon) in The Island, Theatre UAF, 1996.  The Island is a play about two political prisoners putting on a scene from a Greek play in defiance of their captors.  The crown of Creon is therefore made from the effluvia available to two wretched prisoners in a work camp/prison.  I used various bottle caps I’d collected from Russia, the U.S. and other countries to keep the location of the prison, non-specific.

21.  Shoe worn by UAF student Heather Holzapfel as Pappagena in The Magic Flute, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1998.

22.  Wig and hat worn by UAF student Ben Thompson as Lady Bracknell , in The Importance of Being Earnest, Theatre UAF, 2000

23.  Mourning Hat worn by Fairbanks community member Andrew Cassell as John Worthing, in The Importance of Being Earnest, Theatre UAF, 2000.  This hat goes with the Mourning Suit on display in The Wood Center Ballroom.

24.  Headpiece worn by former UAF student Steve Dixon as Pappageno in The Magic Flute, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1998

25.  Jacket and vest by UAF student Shannon Luster as Algernon Montcreif in The Importance of Being Earnest, Theatre UAF, 2000.  This was worn over white pants and shirt, and a pink paisley tie while visiting the country masquerading as “Earnest”.

26.  Dress worn by UAF student Phillip Evans as Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest, Theatre UAF, 2000. This was worn over a corset, bustle, bloomers and more.

27.  Costume Worn by UAF student Michael Karoly as Malvolio in 12^th Night, Theatre UAF, 2000.  This was the yellow costume with stockings he was induced to wear by a forged letter.  In our production we infer he is induced to wear vinyl fetish “sissy maid” clothes.  Off stage, the actor named the hat he wore “the reservoir tip”.

28.  Group of renderings and photos from The Comedy of Errors, Theatre UAF, 1995.

29.  Costume worn by UAF graduate Alex Beaudrault as Antipholus of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors, Theatre UAF, 1995.   All the costumes for The Comedy of Errors were pulled or bought at thrift stores and painted with fabric paints to get their outlandish look, not elaborately pieced, or made from hard to find fabrics.

30.  Book of renderings for The Threepenny Opera, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1997.

Costume Renderings

31.  Group of renderings and photos from The Mikado, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1999. 

32.  Group of renderings and photos from The Grand Tarot, UAF Student Drama Association Special Presentation, 1997.

33.  Costume worn by UAF student Christy Burgess as The Fool in The Grand Tarot, UAF Student Drama Association Special Presentation, 1997.  The symbols on the pockets represent important aspects of the Tarot.

34.  Group of renderings and photos from Yahoo Nation, Theatre UAF, 2001. 

35.  Group of renderings and photos from Alice in Wonderland, Theatre UAF, 1999.

36.  Group of photos from The Magic Flute, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1998.

37.  Headpiece worn by UAF student Heather Holzapfel as Pappagena in The Magic Flute, Theatre UAF/Opera Fairbanks, 1998.  This headpiece was made of coat hangers, masking tape, poster board, tissue paper, glue, and lots of bits and pieces.

38.  Jacket for Hymen the God of Marriage in As You Like It, Theatre UAF, 1988, later converted for Grease.  This jacket was intended to represent a Jimmy Hendrix type Rock and Roll God, and originally had a collar on it that lit up