Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jacob Coakley on August 16, 2010 at 11:24am

And here are the photos from that production.

Permalink Reply by Jacob Coakley on August 18, 2010 at 3:58pm

Thanks for a great chat this morning everyone! Here's the transcript in case you missed it!

JACOB COAKLEY: Alright everyone, it's just about that time!

JACOB COAKLEY: A couple housekeeping things before we get started...

JACOB COAKLEY: Dixon adn I will chat for about the first 10 minutes or so, and then we'll open up the disucssion to everyone else.

JACOB COAKLEY: At times, Dixon, you may find that one of your answers won't fit in window where you're typing.

JACOB COAKLEY: So you'll have to use multiple messages to answer one questions.

JACOB COAKLEY: question.


DIXON REYNOLDS: got it

JACOB COAKLEY: If that's the case, please let us know you're done answering by typing "/e" at the end of your posts, so we know it's OK to go on. Like so... /e

SCOTT MILLER: Lay it on us. I'm all ears. Smile.

DIXON REYNOLDS: ok/e

JACOB COAKLEY: And just so you know -- rambling is totally OK, as are typos. :-)

DIXON REYNOLDS: Perfect!

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: Alright! Easy one to start with -- How'd you get introduced to theatre? And what drew you into costuming?

DIXON REYNOLDS: Wow, ok. I'll try to be brief.

JACOB COAKLEY: :-)

DIXON REYNOLDS: I grew up in a rural part of N.C. and luckily had parents that took us to the theatre. My grandmother gave us season tickets to Playmakers Rep. Co. in Chapel Hill for years and years . . . I fell in love

DIXON REYNOLDS: I found costumes in Chapel Hill as well after my freshman year of college. I finished highshcool at the NCSA in acting and discovered I was a terrible actor, but loved theatre . . . I signed up to work on costumes and watched Brian Russman and Judy

DIXON REYNOLDS: Adamson and knew immediately that I wanted to design costumes.

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: Who are Brian and Judy?

JACOB COAKLEY: While he types out aht answer -- here' the URL for Playmakers http://www.playmakersrep.org/

JACOB COAKLEY: (In case anyone's inerested)

DIXON REYNOLDS: Judy Adamson runs the Costume Technology program at UNC Chapel Hill and is an amazing draper. Brian Russman is a fantastic designer and technologist and now runs the technology program at Carnegie Mellon. huge inspirations/e

JACOB COAKLEY: Very nice.

JACOB COAKLEY: OK, so how'd you go from NC to Buffalo, NY?

DIXON REYNOLDS: oh my

JACOB COAKLEY: lol.. .uh-oh...

DIXON REYNOLDS: umm, I think like most of us jobs and situations sort of happen . . . "fall in our laps" so to speak

JACOB COAKLEY: nods head...

DIXON REYNOLDS: AFter I graduated from NCSA I worked in Colorado and Kansas and Florida and then decided I would head to graduate school, IU (indiana) was a great experience for me because again I had a fantastic mentor in Linda Pisano. Come to think of it, I have

DIXON REYNOLDS: had the most amazing teachers and mentors

DIXON REYNOLDS: anyway, after grad school I took a job teaching at Georgia College in Milledgeville, GA and was there for 3 years and then found Fredonia and moved to WNY/e

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: :-) Yay!

JACOB COAKLEY: OK, so let's talk about the all-female Macbeth. When you were approached with the concept, what were your first reactions for making it happen? What sort of inspiration/research got you started on the design?

JACOB COAKLEY: (And again, a reminder to everyone while he types, yuo can check out some of his renderings and shots of the finished costumes here: http://www.theatreface.com/photo/albums/all-female-macbeth

DIXON REYNOLDS: I was asked in April by the artistic director Saul Elkin and immediately he sprang the "all female cast" on me. I was thrilled! I love unconventional theatre and I totally dislike "remounting" a show or a look. I want to do different things and ta

DIXON REYNOLDS: tackle projects from fresh perspectives.

DIXON REYNOLDS: The director, Eileen Dugan, and I as well as the design team met early on and looked at traditional and abstract images. There was a lot of conversations about natural vs. unnatural.

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: can you elaborate on the "natural vs unnatural conversations"? What was brought up as design points there?

DIXON REYNOLDS: We loved the idea that the witches were completely unnatural and that the flip side of that was that Duncan, Macduff, etc were totally natural and good. In our world Macbeth and L. Macbeth make deals with the unnatural and in the end . . . well you

DIXON REYNOLDS: know the story . . .

DIXON REYNOLDS: :-)

JACOB COAKLEY: :-)

JACOB COAKLEY: In terms of costumes -- you've got the Banquo, Macbeth, etc.

DIXON REYNOLDS: Many images were filtered through this process including period images spanning the 11th to 13th century mixed with a lot of modern abstract imagery

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

DIXON REYNOLDS: sorry, yes/

DIXON REYNOLDS: ?

JACOB COAKLEY: they're dressed as warriors, but as near as I can tell from the pics, they're still wearing "dresses" -- i.e., they're not wearing jerkin and pants,

JACOB COAKLEY: What was the choice there? Was their research that supported this sort of rough, but still "womanly" battle uniforms? Or was that a design choice?

DIXON REYNOLDS: we pulled the silhouette from the late 11th century when men were wearing tunics (dresses) similar to this. This helped us create a sexless look to what the audience already knew were females playing male roles. The last thing we wanted to do was

DIXON REYNOLDS: have the women in moustaches

JACOB COAKLEY: :-)

DIXON REYNOLDS: .haha . . . different production !

DIXON REYNOLDS: The cast was so united in fabulous battle scenes and great fights with broadswords that the silhouette ultimately was a neutral point. many people found that they lost the fact taht the cast was all female. . I think sometimes we rely to heavily on

DIXON REYNOLDS: the costume to tell a story and as designers we forget that the actor/actress will tell the story through performance

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: good point.

JACOB COAKLEY: OK, I've hogged you long enough. I've got more questions, but let's open it up to some of our audience. Who out there has a costuming question for Dixon?

JACOB COAKLEY: Anyone?

DIXON REYNOLDS: buller

JACOB COAKLEY: :-)

JACOB COAKLEY: Quick - Project Runway - love it or hate it? Go! :-)

DIXON REYNOLDS: love it season 1 and 2 . . . I stopped watching when they began fighting . . .too bad. My students love it.

JACOB COAKLEY: OK, back to Macbeth, since we seem to have a quiet crowd here this evening...

DIXON REYNOLDS: ok,

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: What "problems" of the costuming did broadswords/tunics present? Did you find yourself having to change your design at all when you moved into actual fitting/fight calls?

DIXON REYNOLDS: Yes, I changed several things due to the fighting, the weather (outdoor theatre) and the sheer size of the stage. I lost a lot of detail and found I was trimming things just to get some outlines on stage.

DIXON REYNOLDS: The cast was terrific and very involved in the process. They were very interested in how things were made and why certain fabrics were chosen/e

JACOB COAKLEY: Can you give an example of what you mean when you lost some detail, or had to trim things?

DIXON REYNOLDS: sure, the show began at 7:30 (daylight) and ended around 10:30 (dark). The lighting designer did a beautiful job, but those are tricky circumstances.

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: Sorry -- still confused - so youhad to lose some detailin the costuming b/c it wasn't showing up due to lighting? Or the lighting didn't bring yrou detail out, but it was there?

CHARLENE ROWLEY: Can you give any suggestions as to how I can solidify my designs before production? lol .. I seem to have a hard time.

CHARLENE ROWLEY: I am the designer for a community theqtre group, but cant seem to nail things down until we are deep into rehearsals

DIXON REYNOLDS: oh sorry, The daylight acted as a diffuser almost for the stage lighting. As the audiences eyes are adjusting to the elements I lost alot of my greys and blacks into the set. once we were at dark the stage lights began to help pull the detail of th

DIXON REYNOLDS: e clothes back out

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: Got it.

DIXON REYNOLDS: Hi Charlene!

CHARLENE ROWLEY: HI

SCOTT MILER: Dixon. How do you decide how to start on a particular costume. Do you read the script and get a concept in your imagination or how do you start?

DIXON REYNOLDS: Ok, Charlene first.

CHARLENE ROWLEY: it totally stresses out my director...lol

DIXON REYNOLDS: I find that continuous communication with ou stuggle as an artist

DIXON REYNOLDS: get it on paper.

DIXON REYNOLDS: use collage or any other media to soldify your ideas

CHARLENE ROWLEY: Ive tried but the options are so limitless that I find until its at the wire, I cant make up my mind

DIXON REYNOLDS: things always change in rehearsal. . . . ahhhhhhhhhh the real problem

DIXON REYNOLDS: :-)

DIXON REYNOLDS: This is the toughest thing about being a designer, i think. Making decisions.

DIXON REYNOLDS: You just have to do it. And once you do stick to it.

CHARLENE ROWLEY: lol....I'll try

DIXON REYNOLDS: There will always be change and as theatrical designers. Its hard to be wishy washy. I know you can do it!

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

CHARLENE ROWLEY: It would probably be easier too if I could completely focus on my show. Its community theeatre so no pay...so I have to do my paid designing...its hard to know when to trade off.

DIXON REYNOLDS: Very true Charlene. If you love this and want to do it, the time you invest in it will pay off.

CHARLENE ROWLEY: I hope so...I LOVE theatre!

DIXON REYNOLDS: Scott? you next?

SCOTT MILER: Sounds good.

DIXON REYNOLDS: I start by reading the script as many times as I can before the first meeting. I find words give me visuals and I make notes on how I see the show.

DIXON REYNOLDS: In Macbeth for instance, we really wanted the openning witch scene to be creepy and scare people. The director and I decided to the witches in black, but we wanted more. originally I saw masses of witches and thought that was scary, Eileen and I ag

DIXON REYNOLDS: agreed and we put the entire cast in a witch costume (all black) for a "ritural" at the top of the show. It was freaky!

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: Wow.

JACOB COAKLEY: that does sound freaky.

CHARLENE ROWLEY: cool!

DIXON REYNOLDS: 27 witches is nothing to sniff at!

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: :-)

JACOB COAKLEY: Anyone else have a question?

SCOTT MILER: That sounds cool. Black is a scary color and sounds just right for a scary witch.

JACOB COAKLEY: Another quick fun one while we see if anyone else has anything: Dream project? Every actor wants to play Hamlet -- what's your dream show to design?

DIXON REYNOLDS: wow. hmmmm. I love new plays. I love working on new material and bizarre theatre spaces, so I guess I'd love to work at the Humana Festival or any new works festival. I also love ballet and would love to design the classics . . . swan lake . . .e

DIXON REYNOLDS: /e

JACOB COAKLEY: oooooohhhh.

JACOB COAKLEY: That brings up an interesting question -- what are the differences between theatre and ballet? or something like a straight play and musical theatre? Are there any?

JACOB COAKLEY: (I mean in terms of desinging -- obviously with ballet it's dance, (Duh) but does musical theatre change the game as drastically?

DIXON REYNOLDS: oh sure. many. and there are many similarities. We always have to take into considration the performers movement, but in ballet you are dealing with intense movement.

DIXON REYNOLDS: Musical theatre is a variable depending on the production

DIXON REYNOLDS: I think you can get away with alot more in musical theatre

DIXON REYNOLDS: for instance

DIXON REYNOLDS: sequins buttons or bold plaids. Usually musicals are fun, or big, maybe over the top. but that isnt always the case.

DIXON REYNOLDS: I love those challenges

DIXON REYNOLDS: every show has them.

JACOB COAKLEY: what challenge are you working on now?

DIXON REYNOLDS: I just coordinated All Shook Up starring Sally Struthers and it was a rented package except Ms. Stuthers clothes. My job was to fit the rental package and to fill in the holes and dress Ms. Stuthers and make her clothes look like they belonged with

DIXON REYNOLDS: the other costumes.

DIXON REYNOLDS: btw. she is great!

DIXON REYNOLDS: hilarious!

JACOB COAKLEY: :-) I saw her at USITT this past spring and she was hysterical there, too.

DIXON REYNOLDS: My next challenge is Charley's Aunt.

DIXON REYNOLDS: a man in period women's clothes!

DIXON REYNOLDS: FUN!

JACOB COAKLEY: :-)

JACOB COAKLEY: Alright -- anyone have a last question for Dixon before we close up?

CHARLENE ROWLEY: I love period costumes!

JACOB COAKLEY: (me too...)

DIXON REYNOLDS: me too Charlene! the 40's are my fav.

CHARLENE ROWLEY: I like a bit earlier...more Victorian

JACOB COAKLEY: Alright then! Dixon - thank you so much for your time!

JACOB COAKLEY: (fin de siecle is where it's at!)

JACOB COAKLEY: Is there a way people can get a hold of you if they have more questions?

DIXON REYNOLDS: yes! I just was at the Bata shoe museum this weekend in Toronto and saw some unbelieveable boots from that era!

DIXON REYNOLDS: Sure

CHARLENE ROWLEY: oooh

DIXON REYNOLDS: 'm on Facebook or they can email me at cdrthree@gmail.com

DIXON REYNOLDS: or I can be reached at SUNY Fredonia Dept. of Theatre and Dance

JACOB COAKLEY: beautiful.

JACOB COAKLEY: Thanks for your time -- and thanks everyone for being here!

CHARLENE ROWLEY: thank you!

JACOB COAKLEY: (And I certainly wouldn't mind if anyone wanted ot post some pics of the fin de siecle boots...:-))

DIXON REYNOLDS: Thank you! This was fun. I will share this site with my students!

DIXON REYNOLDS: I'll get right on that!!! :-)

JACOB COAKLEY: thanks everyone! I have to go deal with a printing issue, but feel free to keep talking!

JACOB COAKLEY: (And I'll have the transcript up soon for anyone who missed it.)

JACOB COAKLEY: THANK YOU DIXON!

DIXON REYNOLDS: Thank you!