Working as part of a real team is one of the great joys of theatre. It is so exciting to bounce ideas off of other people and gain from others perspective and creativity. When you are part of a team that is really clicking then it is like you have an engine behind you and your creativity in heightened. Teams don’t happen overnight and must be nurtured by everyone involved. There needs to be a culture of trust, responsibility and respect for a team to flourish. One of the most important aspects of theatre is the trust involved. We ask for trust from the actors and the directors when we work as designers. We are saying to them when we are hired; I know the period, I know the show, I have wonderful taste and it will look marvelous, trust me. And if we are lucky, they do. We also have to trust the actors, the director and the other designers to do their jobs, just like they trust us to do ours. The whole fabric of theatre starts to shred if there isn’t trust between all the members of the team. The greatest respect that we can give our fellow workers and artists in theatre is that we trust them to do their jobs. And the greatest respect that we can receive is when we are trusted as well. The whole world of theatre is based on this trust, actors trust other actors to show up on time and know their lines and blocking. Directors trust the actors to do the same. Costume designers trust the wardrobe department to maintain and clean the show and the actors trust that when they come into the theatre their costumes will be clean and waiting for them. Trust and responsibility are our bywords, even though to the outside world theatre people are flakes and charlatans. Theatre is the most civilized activity around, where else do people really have to work together to create?
The other part of working as a team is communication. It is so important to have the kind of relationship with your fellow theatre artists that make communication easy and frequent. It is so important to have a good relationship with the set and lighting designers on the show. After all what would costumes look like in a bare room with no lights, nothing! Color is relative to what is next to it and relative to the light too so none of your carefully conceived color schemes will work without cooperation with the other designers. In the first design meetings where you are bouncing ideas around there should come a unified vision for the show.
“Creative disagreements between sympathetic collaborators spur new ideas” Twyla Tharp, The Collaborative Habit
Costumier 