Burke.Word

Over the next few weeks leading up to the opening of Urinetown; The Musical we’ll be giving you inside peeks at the design and rehearsal process from the mouths of the students working on the show. Today’s entry is written by high school junior Fernando Snellings, who’s the costume designer. Fernando has just finished the research phase of the project, and here’s what he’s got to say:

A day in mind of a costumer….

The process for designing costumers is something that everyone does differently, like running in track, setting up for a free shot –it takes time and good work to get to that point. For Urinetown, a musical that requires many costumers for characters across the spectrum, it was definitely a challenge that I was excited to take on.

The Rich, who have ruled the town by making pay for pee toilets to conserve water,had to embody wealth-but in a way that was almost over saturated. For visions of corporate men and women, looking towards one of my favorite shows, Mad Men, was a quick and easy choice. However, the looks represented there was a little bit dated, which was easily upgraded with quirky little details-which drew me towards the clothing that Blair Waldorf wears in the season 4 of Gossip Girl- structured, almost architectural in design for the women. I was smitten with plaid suits and seersucker for Cladwell’s two henchmen: McQueen and Fipp. In a strange twist, I found a beautiful

Alexander McQueen plaid suit as a reference for Mr. Queen.

For Fipp, the idea of intense blue pants with a seersucker top enthralled me-I wanted it to be flashy because he IS a senator, but refined as well.

My favorite costume by far was the costume I designed for Hope-looking through preppy ideas for Hope at first was hard because finding a look that balanced her personality meant filtering through many looks. Hope is too old to look into the styles favored by the preppy girls of TV and too young to be wear wearing preppy suits. Instead, I looked around a happy mixture, or something that a college age girl would wear. What I settled on was a perfect medium-a grey sweater with a white shirt and tie and a tennis skirt. What made the look really bring it home were the fun colored yellow stockings and construction boots-fun pops of details that made the outfit quirky.

Pennywise was another character that began as a struggle but ended up somehow falling together. The strong, determined, and sometimes affectionate sides of her personality needed to be shown and the first few ideas just didn’t seem to work out. Finally, upon a few discussions with Cory, I decided upon using combat boots for her-because Pennywise is not a strong dancing character, so she is able to wear heavier boots onstage that also exude power-something the character prides. In addition to the boots, a khaki skirt to remind the audience she was feminine was important-Pennywise might be tough and sometimes aggressive-but under it all, she is just a girl. A strong military jacket makes her look even more intimating. For her hair, a super sleek bun completes the look.

Check out the full galary of costume research here: Costume Research Images