Mosaic Youth Theatre
I had the privilege to costume several productions for the award winning Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit. This vibrant organization provides opportunities for Michigan youth to grow & develop as performers, as well as coaching life skills to inspire them in any professional field.
Teaching Professionalism
With 6 performing groups plus a crew of student technicians, Mosaic is dedicated to the development of it’s student members. Over the course of two seasons, I costumed six main stage productions in theater, show choir and multi media performances with between 60 - 200+ performers. I directed a crew of technicians assigned to the costume crew. I also taught the whole tech crew classes in costume plotting, EVA foam crafting and basic sewing skills.
This Is Me
Costume and wardrobe for this vocalist concert, featuring the music of Pasek & Paul (Dear Evan Hanson, Greatest Showman, James and the Giant Peach, & others.)
The show required 4 magic transformation outfits and a full cast fast change in the middle of one song. I designed the show with two ensemble looks, a flowy military dance uniform in scarlet and black, for the first half; and an individual look of bright colored modern clothes, with a unifying stripe theme.
The red and black uniform was designed to both flow and move well for dancing, but also to facilitate the cast fast change into the second half.
I worked with each cast member to costume them into the individual look which they felt expressed themselves. This was a challenge as many of the teens were puzzled by the thought of individualistic personal fashion, preferring clothes that blend in with their teen peers. So designing the second look was a journey of self discovery that I took with many of the cast.
The Island of Misfit Toys
The largest show of each Mosaic season was traditionally the holiday show, “Woodward Wonderland,” a variety of scenes, choir, dance & production numbers featuring all of the various Mosaic ensembles.
The first Mosaic production I costumed was the 2017 Woodward Wonderland. That year, they wanted to add a production number featuring the Misfit Toys, from the Holiday TV Classic, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.
The group’s directors assured me that they would be satisfied with some sort of suggested character costume, like a screen printed t-shirt. But I knew that I could do better! I enlisted the help of my friend, Buddy VanLoon, an experienced cosplay foam artist. He taught me the basics of EVA foam construction and helped me make the, boat and train prop costumes, which look just like the TV cartoon. I then created the cowboy/ostrich, grape jelly squirtgun,’ and a huge, spotted elephant’ for the company’s tallest member, Big John!
Having the realistic costumes brought a sense of magic to that scene, both for the audience and for the actors.
For the following year’s holiday show, I added, ‘The Bird who Swims,’ costume. But this time, it was I who did the teaching, both having my costume crew students assist me in building and maintaining, and also conducting a class in foam work for all of the tech students.
As you can see from the photos, instead of Big John, that year they cast the smallest company member to play the elephant. But I decided that the oversized costume looked adorable, and toy-like on her.
A Christmas Carol
For the 2019 holiday show, instead of their traditional, “Woodward Wonderland,” Mosaic programmed an inventive production of, “A Christmas Carol.” With a set consisting of a few cube blocks and two costume racks onstage, this was an ensemble show. Scrooge was played by most of the cast members, both male & female, trading off the Scrooge robe & mask throughout the story. This represented the potential scrooge in each of us which we must overcome.
The costume design featured creative looks with just a few pieces to portray characters which the audience knows well. Most productions use authentic period costumes. But a creative, representational design went along with the inventive portrayal of this holiday classic.
Detroit to Dakar
The 2018 season finale was an original play written by the Mosaic directors and students, depicting a 15 day exchange trip the Mosaic kids took to Dakar, Senegal in 2003. It had a cast of over 100. The students portrayed multiple characters, both American and African, with many quick costume changes. Costumes helped the audience follow character identity in this quick paced show of vignettes and songs. The show culminated in a huge ethnic dance concert. I copied the deceptively complicated garments that the original 15 students wore on their trip, using wax block print fabric from Senegal. I created over 100 custom fitted costumes. I was not involved in the bulk purchase of this fabric, they simply bought a bulk of approximately 300 yds of the fabric, and I couldn’t get any more. So creative design and problem solving was used to puzzle more than 100 garments out of this large print fabric.
