Graduate students create, design costumes for UNC plays

Every theater production at PlayMakers Repertory Company requires some sort of costuming. Whether readymade clothes need to be altered or new costumes need to be created from scratch, the students of UNC's Master of Fine Arts in Costume Production oversee each button and thread. 

The Costume Production MFA is a three-year program housed in the Department of Dramatic Art. In addition to working in PlayMakers’ productions, they manage a schedule of classes that include subjects like couture construction and pattern creation. 

“It’s so much work," Jocelyn Chatman, a third-year Costume Production graduate student, said. "I don’t really have a life outside of this, I will say that. I will say, I’ve never learned so much in a short amount of time in my entire life.”

The job of costume production is to take the ideas of a designer and turn them into a physical product. Students use different methods, like draping and pattern drafting, to create the patterns that allow the designs to be turned into actual garments.

“We take the sketches and make those 2D renderings into reality,” Sally Rath, a second-year Costume Production graduate student, said.

Sometimes, costuming doesn’t always require creating something new and elaborate. Costume production can also involve altering preexisting garments.

“PlayMakers does a lot of modern-ish shows, you know, so we sometimes do a lot of alterations on the shows that are super modern,” Zachary Morrison, a second-year Costume Production graduate student, said. “Like, we are going to H&M, we’re going to all those other stores and we’re buying off the rack, and then we’re altering it.”

Currently, the students are creating the costumes for PlayMaker’s production of “Misery.” 

The process of creating costumes for the theater productions is very involved. Everyone has a different role – either draper, stitcher, first hand or craftsperson. 

The draper creates patterns, the first hand cuts the patterns, the stitcher puts the patterns together and the craftsperson manages specialized aspects of production, like fabric dying or accessory making. Every show, the roles rotate between the graduate students. 

Both Morrison and Rath are serving as stitchers for this production, while Chatman is a draper. 

“Jocelyn is telling me and Sally how to sew something, what she wants done to the garment, how it's supposed to look,” Morrison said.

For "Misery," the students need to create two costumes from scratch, also called builds. The costuming workflow can differ greatly from show to show, depending on factors like time period or cast.

“This show has a lot of dressmaking, which I think we both really like doing,” Morrison said.

While costuming for PlayMakers productions occupies a generous portion of the graduate students’ schedules, they still have their classes and assignments to manage outside of the theater.

In their third year, they complete their “thesis,” which involves the creation of about six major costuming projects, including corset reproduction, tutu making and historical reproduction.

“So here at UNC-Chapel Hill — a lot of people don’t know — but we have a historic garment collection here called Costar,” Morrison said. “And so we take something from Costar, and we make it for a modern body today.”

All of these projects leave the students working long hours on campus, because — unlike graduate students in many other fields — it isn’t always so easy for costume production students to take their work home with them.

“It’s just because you need a really big table to be able to lay out your patterns, lay out your fabric and cut it out,” Chatman said. “And there’s just certain tools that are here that we just can’t really have at home.”

For some students, teaching is an additional priority alongside their costuming responsibilities. 

Three days a week, Rath teaches Dramatic Art 192: Technical Methods: Costume, which is the introductory costume construction class for undergraduates. She said she likes to devote her energy to the class because she wants to teach after her master’s program. 

Chatman said she wants to open a cosplay business and Morrison expressed a desire to manage a costume shop in New York City or on Broadway. 

“It’s definitely a little stressful at times,” Chatman said. “But for me, worth it in the grand scheme of things, and I will be able to use all these skills for decades to come.”

@sydneybrainard

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