Category Archives: costumes

She Kills Monsters (Drama 101)

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Monster Time!!!

Students work on numerous Costume and/or Monster building activities on a Wednesday afternoon at Company.
So whether you know what it means to LARP (Live Action Role Play) or maybe you remember D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) or maybe you just felt like the odd kid out, this play’s for you.
The fall production of She Kills Monsters is in full swing and Wednesday afternoons are Monster building time.
We have goblins, demons, kobalds, succubi, and so much more.

We also need to build the armor that will protect our heroine and her crew as they fight these monsters.

On any given Wednesday the Costume room at the theatre could have as many as 10 students working on building the monster costumes. While it can be hectic, I find it is quite fun to be moving around the room helping students troubleshoot their costume construction hurdles or suggest other methods for getting a similar result.

Emily Walsh as a “BugBear”.
Emily, a sophomore, serves as Costumes Crew Head and is designing and building 6 BugBear costumes for the play.

(While I was in the process of writing this blog, I was asked to write a blurb for the Alumnae Newsletter and I think it does a great job of expressing my feelings about working with Company).

When I graduated in 1998, I never thought I would one day be back and teaching at Carondelet. But after working as an elementary School Librarian in San Francisco for four years, and getting tired of using all my money on rent, I felt the need to return to the East Bay.

As I was looking to see what was available for someone with a Masters in Library & Information Science (San Jose State ’05) and a love of Theatre Arts, I found a posting for a Library Assistant position at Carondelet. While I knew I was over qualified, I was also drawn to opportunity to work at my Alma Mater, to give back to the school that had helped shape me. 


Now as I start my 13th year on campus as a Faculty member and I can’t help but look back at all the students I have worked with and the opportunities that have come my way since I returned in the fall of 2007 to Carondelet. 

I am told that I wear a lot of hats on campus: I am the Librarian & Textbook Manager, the Yearbook Advisor, teach in the Visual & Performing Arts Department, and help moderate Company, our amazing theater program with De La Salle. As a student, it was through Company that I found my place and explored my passion for sewing and costume design which led me to major in Theatre Arts in college with an emphasis in Costume Design & Arts Management (BA Theatre Arts, Notre Dame de Namur University ’02). Now it is my pleasure to help guide and mentor students interested in Costume, MakeUp or Hair design. Three days a week after school, you can find me at the DLS Theater in the old band room working with students on the current show.

This year’s fall production of She Kill Monsters really takes me back to high school. It is set in 1995 in a small midwest high school and focuses on a pair of sisters, Agnes and Tilly. She Kill Monsters is a comedic and action-packed story about a high school girl who discovers her dead little sister had a life she knew nothing about. Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Role-Playing Game was Tilly’s refuge and a place of freedom.  By the end of the story, the audience can decide who the real monsters are. Helping my students recreate the look and feel of 1995 (grunge, preppy, etc) as well as creating the fantasy characters in D&D has been so much fun. I hope you can join us!

Social Fabric: Oakland School for the Arts Fashion Show (and campus visit)

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Amy has been nudging me to visit OSA (Oakland School for the Arts) for about a year now.

So a couple weeks agoe, she and I took off in the afternoon to check out their Fashion Design class/program with Linda Riccardi. There was such great energy in the room while we were there as they are getting ready for their annual Fashion Design Show.

I had to laugh as Linda took us around the campus to her classroom. For those of you who aren’t familiar with OSA it is a charter school that is in the same building as the Fox Theater in downtown Oakland. Linda kept apologizing for the size of her room and the mess–I told her I wish I had her space–especially as I saw what she had. Her room is a little larger than Andrew’s (room 45) with a smaller room storeroom attached. The room is set up as a fashion/clothing workroom.

Along one wall are 5 sewing machines and assorted measuring tools.:

 
Brother semi-pro line as used on Project Runway Juniors. Variety of Seamstress rulers and hoops.

 Along another wall are threads and 2 more specialty machines. And around the room are 6-8 professional dress forms.

Another wall had slopers (hand drawn/measured pattern blanks)

In the center of the room are three large cutting tables (on adjustable stands). With students busy at work completing their designs for the upcoming show.

Amy and I were able to take the time to wander around the room and talk to the students about their work, how they developed their ideas, what their backgrounds are like and how many of them are working with Linda for the first, second or third year (the program is only three years old).
Mia’s crocheting to represent Irish Lace
 
Seeing the student’s work and hearing their stories around their collections gave me such ideas for invigorating my curriculum and pushing my students to the next level. Meeting the students, and seeing how Linda pushes these students made me want to do more in my class. Too often I find myself struggling to get the students to produce something that sometimes I am willing to accept anything that comes close to what they are asked for. Now I know that most of the students in my class are not looking to pursue a career in design or fashion, but by lowering the bar for all of them I wonder if I have done them a disservice. As I stood in the room at OSA and talked with these students I started to have all these ideas of how I could redesign the curriculum to better engage the students to get them to that depth point that we want instead of just skimming the surface.
Friday night I was able to attend the OSA Fashion Design Class spring show: Social Fabric
I was blown away with the detail and depth to which some of the students were able to reach with their pieces.
Here are some of my favs:
The student called her collection “ghosts” and played with the idea that ghosts are often tied or bound to earth instead of being able to move on–she also explored the idea that the faces are obscured.
                                    

This student was inspired by his African Heritage and envisioned Africa in the Future–his headdresses were so detailed and had so much color.

This is the finished piece to to one of the earlier photos–this student sewed yarn strand by strand onto clear vinyl to make her designs.

Right now as we wind down this school year–I actually can’t wait for next year to get here to tryo out the new ideas I have for helping my students dive deeper fashion and costume design and how even if they don’t think they can “do art” or “draw”–that they can still develop their and express their creativity through textiles and clothing.

Stepping Back and Letting Go

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We all want to move toward a student centered environment where the students take the lead and help lead and share their knowledge with one another.

I have been looking forward to Company this spring, since for the first time in 10 years, I won’t be designing the main stage production. Instead, Zoe Heilmann, will be in charge of the Costume Design and the Costumes Crew for Pygmalion.


However as Monday taught me, Zoe and I might both be ready for her to take lead, but the other students on the crew aren’t so sure about it. I spent most of the 2 hours after school telling students to “Ask Zoe”, “Show Zoe”, “Zoe come here and answer____ question.”

Since the show is a work in progress, I plan to give updates here all semester, so check back to see how we do.

Zoe Heilmann measures Dante Williams for his costume.