Like peanut butter to jelly, like Siegfried to Roy, what would the performing arts be without sequins? If the performing arts were a country, the flag undoubtedly would be made of gaff tape and sequins. What material would befit the banner of our happy little nation-state more? When we think about a few American performing... Continue Reading →
How a Russian defector built couture fashion from ballet costumes during the rise of New York City Ballet Chanel. Gucci. Givenchy. These famous fashion houses earned notoriety for their signature styles, making their designs easily recognizable – the Chanel suit, the Gucci bag, the Givenchy dress. In the golden age of American ballet, during the... Continue Reading →
The performing arts are big business. In this industry, we have a lot of super important jobs for people who love the theater but who may have no interest in performing. This week, we sat down with Straz Center costumer Camille McClellan, who costumes dance and musical theater productions for the Patel Conservatory, to find... Continue Reading →
Straz Center theater professionals share the gruesome details of great horror makeup with step-by-step instructions for creating our favorite look, “Festering Wound with Pencil.” Happy haunting, arts lovers! Makeup is magic. It has the power to transform one’s outside and one’s sense of self. Great makeup can help create a great character. With most makeup... Continue Reading →
By guest blogger Carol Cohen, Mother Matryoshka performer for 5 years Among the whip-thin ballerinas performing grand jetés and assemblés in the Russian Imperial ballet of the Nutcracker, loom the rotund, bouncing figures of the Mother Matryoshkas—eight Russian nesting dolls, appearing in descending order of height and girth. The Matryoshkas--meaning “little mother” in Russian--appear on... Continue Reading →
The ultra-sexy revamped sheer black palette of the Chicago revival. The yellow dress in Contact. The frogs in Frogs. Sally Bowles’ maximum-leg-power mini-dress in Cabaret. The feather-trimmed muu-muu in Hairspray. And here, at The Straz, the mind-blowing, magical wardrobe changes in Rodgers+Hammerstien’s Cinderella. There is one mastermind behind these historic works of theater couture, and... Continue Reading →