Just some steps from the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s stage, sits an peculiar workplace constructing crammed with extraordinary individuals: One who makes a speciality of customized stockings, one other who’s a dye knowledgeable, one who’s deeply educated about interval robes, and one other about tiaras. That is the Ballet’s costume division, and this fall, they’re taking up the corporate’s largest present ever: A model new manufacturing of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Magnificence.
The set was designed by Native American glass artist Preston Singletary, the puppets come from famed puppeteer Basil Twist, and the costume design is directed by Paul Tazewell, who you might have heard of when he gained a Tony for his work on Hamilton. This group of extremely specialised artisans—90 to this point—is tasked with taking all three of these artists’ desires and turning them right into a actuality. We received to step backstage and see that magic whereas it was nonetheless brewing.
After we arrived on the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s costume division, they’d already been engaged on Sleeping Magnificence for months. PNB is certainly one of just some ballet firms within the nation that has an in-house costume staff. Under the workplaces, you can hear dancers in rehearsal rooms. Meleta Buckstaff, the costume store supervisor sits in entrance of simply a number of the division’s spools of thread. After we visited within the fall, the costume division was already besieged by the sheer quantity of outfits. Clothes racks took over hallways, clogged private workplaces and convention rooms, and nestled subsequent to merchandising machines.
As a result of the costumers work alongside aspect the dancers, they’re capable of watch each, and make minor, very important changes to the costumes to enhance the distinctive ways in which they transfer.
Tazewell delivered two large three-ring binders, referred to as Costume Bibles. Every web page, like this one, has a sketch and a sequence of material swatches. PNB’s artisans use that bible to provide a completely new world.
Nova Dobrev (left) is the manufacturing’s rhinestone specialist—in any other case referred to as a “stoner.” She approaches rhinestone placement as an extension of lighting design, as a result of every stone placement determines how the sunshine is mirrored again to the viewers. Ellis (proper) handles one of many royal robes within the manufacturing. A number of components within the manufacturing’s design nod to Preston Singletary’s work, and Pacific Northwest indigenous artwork.
Mark Zappone was a member of the PNB’s costume staff within the in ’80s, and has since constructed a celebrated unbiased costume studio. Zappone was one of many studios (and the 90 fingers) that helped construct out this manufacturing. Right here, he is holding certainly one of Carabosse’s wings. Most of the costumes are solid in shades of blue and teal, however the designers had been cautious to ensure that it would not seem like a mass of 1 hue. The costumes run a variety of blues, simply totally different sufficient to make the stage dynamic. Night time by night time, the costumes will be worn by totally different dancers. To verify the nude tones match the dancers’ pores and skin, each bit can swap out the nude straps.
Dye knowledgeable Wyly Astley hand-dyed just about every bit of material within the manufacturing, customized matching every swatch to the costume bible.
Erik Andor labored with Basil Twist—the New York-based puppeteer greatest identified for his underwater puppet present, “Symphonie Fantastique”—to create his imaginative and prescient for Sleeping Magnificence’s puppets. Right here he’s with the entire substitute tails for the manufacturing’s rodents. Andor created a swarm of scurrying rodents by working with a bicycle fabricator. The puppeteers put on one on their head, one other on one hand, and the opposite hand operates a steel wheel with a number of extra rats biking via. Andor usually provides a golden tooth to his puppets—hold an eye fixed out onstage. Andor additionally designed the crowns that the ballet’s royalty put on. He wished the crowns within the manufacturing to be a nod to Preston Singletary’s glasswork, however it’s important that the costume items be each sturdy and light-weight. To make that occur, the crowns are fabricated from resin and PVC.
