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diversions
Finding success
in design
By Nathalie Brun
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
If a picture is
worth a thousand words, then a black-and-white enlargement
of an old photograph featuring a neighborhood children's costume
party, fixed to one of the few remaining free surfaces in
the cozy costume shop--a tiny refrigerator--says it all.
In the photograph,
four-year-old CSULB alumna Donna Fritsche poses as an Indian
princess, flanked by a group of young neighbors, cousins and
an older brother, all dressed up in Peter Pan attire.
Today Fritsche
reigns over her own Neverland--the Long Beach Playhouse costume
shop--creating costumes for the venerable theatre landmark
and pursuing a lifelong dream whose seeds were planted in
that party long ago.
Growing up in Orange
County, Fritsche's passion for costumes led her to seize any
opportunity to dress up, such as Halloween and the Renaissance
Pleasure Faire.
"And that
wasn't enough," she emphasizes, "so we had costume
parties where I would make costumes for all my friends and
dress up. We did a Dickens party, then a Mardi Gras party...just
anything to build costumes, and finally they got tired of
it so they said, 'Donna, go find theatre!'"
And that's what
she did. In 1987 Fritsche met Elaine Herman, then the playhouse's
managing director, fell in love with the job, and worked as
a volunteer costume designer there for two-and-a-half years.
Fritsche says she
then reached a turning point in her life. "I worked
as a bank secretary, I wasn't happy, I was turning 40, and
said 'what am I going to do with my life?' I thought, the
one thing I really, really want to do is costuming, and I
will go to school and study that. Maybe I'll never get a job
in costuming, but at least I'll be able to study what I love.
I felt if I got my college degree, there would maybe be something
exciting out there for me," she says.
Fritsche returned
to college, attending CSULB. "I had some college way
back when I finished high school, but it was really like going
back for the first time, because it had been so long, but
I loved it and even enjoyed the math classes!" she says
with a ready, infectious smile.
After graduating
in 1995, Fritsche was asked back to the playhouse by Elaine
Herman, now the artistic director, and in 1996 became the
theatre's first paid, full time, resident costume designer.
As a technical
theatre major, Fritsche took classes in each of the various
disciplines of theatre, such as lighting, set design, directing,
and acting, as well as costume and surface design (the art
of preparing fabrics through dye, paint, distressing and the
like). Before that, she says she had known very little about
theatre.
"The undergraduate
program at CSULB is great because you have to take classes
in every area. Now I can talk to a set designer, a director
or an actor because I have been exposed to all these areas,
and that is one reason I'm really glad I went back to school,"
she says.
Asked how she gets
her inspiration, Fritsche explains the process of building
a costume for a production. First she begins by reading the
play, preferably three months in advance, then tries to reread
it closer to the production date, researching if necessary
the "period" in which the play is set, to let things
"percolate in her mind," she says.
"I usually
start by getting visual ideas as I read the text and do research.
I'll then talk to the director about honing in on specifics
for each character."
To conduct her
research, Fritsche relies on a wealth of costume books acquired
over the years, the library, and friends in the business she
shares information with. "My friend Michael Pacciorini,
who manages the costume shop of the theatre arts department
at [CSULB], has many, many books. He's always there to help
me out," she says.
If the play has
a contemporary setting, Fritsche questions the actors about
their characters. "I'll say, do you think your character
would wear this, or I'll even ask [the actor] for ideas, since
they are even more in tune with the character than I am. When
I read a play, I can't help start building pictures in my
mind right away."
"When I took
an acting class at school, the first thing I thought about
was, 'what am I going to wear?' [However] some actors are
so cool; they just say 'whatever'--they rely on me."
Fritsche is currently
working on the drama "Beast on the Moon", a story
about survivors of the Armenian holocaust, which will start
running Aug. 31. To create a dress for a character arriving
to America as a "picture bride," Fritsche says,
"I looked at pictures of Ellis Island. I'd think I'd
want to make her an outfit that is twenty years old.
She's been in an orphanage, so I am looking at fashions--it's
1921 when she arrives, so [the outfit should be dated] 1900,
in my mind."
"I talked
with the director about her costume and we came up with the
idea of having her wear a re-worked dress in a later scene
showing she's used the fabric from her first outfit, because
she was poor and was resourceful. That's one thing I like
about working here...it's very collaborative."
Although she always
seeks to be as correct as possible in recreating a period,
Fritsche says that when designing a costume she looks more
at how it's going to reflect on her character rather than
strive for textbook authenticity.
She gives as an
example her color choice for a courtesan's gown in the George
Bernard Shaw play, "Mrs. Warren's Profession". Though
the design is authentic Victorian, the pinks and purples of
the fabric are not. "I wanted to convey that she flaunts
regular social convention and lives outside society,"
Fritsche says.
(The "Mrs.
Warren's Profession" costumes are currently on display
in the playhouse gallery, where guests take refreshments and
listen to pre-show live music.)
Fritsche also takes
into account the "feel" of a play. "If it's
a very light comedy, or tragedy, or a farce, somewhere in
between [I'll find] what fits the mood for how the costume's
going to look as well," she says.
For "Hotel
Paridiso", a Georges Feydeau farce set around 1905, "we
really had fun with that. I did things that wouldn't be historically
correct. There were some really fun over-the-top characters--their
costumes reflected that."
For any contemporary
show set in the last 20 years, Fritsche says she "uses
thrift stores a lot." Over the years, she has accumulated,
through donations, period hats from the 1940s, '50s and '60s,
shoes and accessories. "For the Victorian period,
I rely on my husband to build all my hats. He does a
marvelous job!"
Fritsche says her
husband, artist Greg Fritsche, likes to fabric shop with her,
and she appreciates having him along "to bounce ideas
off. He has a great eye so he'll bring something to me [in
the fabric store] I hadn't thought of, and I'll say, 'wow,
that's great!'"
Fritsche's favorite
period is the Victorian era. "I've built so many Victorian
costumes, right now we could do almost any Oscar Wilde play,"
she says. Among her favorite productions were Wilde's
"Lady Windermere's Fan," for which she received
a 1996 Dramalogue award for costume design.
Other favorites
are Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" and Shaw's "Pygmalion".
With so many costumes,
space in the costume shop has become an issue. "We're
just about bursting at the seams right now," exclaims
Fritsche.
The diminutive
shop, perched above the theatre's furniture and props storage
area, and accessible by a small winding side staircase, lined
from wall to ceiling with boxes and racks of costumes, giving
visitors the impression that they have stumbled into the ultimate
grandma's attic filled with every possible "make believe"
childhood dress-up dream.
Fritsche's advice
to aspiring costume designers is to "stay in school and
get your degree as a theatre arts or art major."
She also advises a person seek out a theatre to volunteer,
since "volunteers are the lifeblood of the theatre."
"[Theatres]
are always going to need you. If you show aptitude,
they will be happy to let you take on more and more responsibility.
That's really how I got started here. I showed aptitude, and
before I knew it, I was designing a show!"
The playhouse has
two stages and produces 16 shows a year. Fritsche's
workload depends on a particular show's costume needs. She
sets her work hours based on the time frame, and on available
volunteers.
Occasionally, she
is helped by interns from nearby colleges. During crunch times,
50-65 hour workweeks are not unheard of.
Fritsche enjoys
working for the playhouse for a variety of reasons.
"It's such a luxury to set my own hours, to be 10 minutes
from home, to be a part of the cultural life of the community
I live in, and contribute to the arts in Long Beach,"
she says.
She says being
a costume designer makes her feel "a little like the
unsung hero, but that's a neat aspect about it."
Fritsche has also
received a 1997 Dramalogue award for her costumes in August
Wilson's "Joe Turner's Come and Gone."
"I love getting
nice reviews and compliments on my work, but the best compliment
I get is when an actor says 'you really helped me nail my
character.' I love that. That's the best, because that's when
I feel like I really succeeded, when I've let them find their
way with the character," Fritsche says.
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