About Me
My Background
I'm a theatrical designer and technician born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. I specialize in costumes and props with an A.S. in Fashion: Theatre Costuming from Cañada College and a B.A. in Theater Arts: Theatrical Design/Technology from Plymouth State University.
Though I got into sewing relatively late, I took to it like a fish to water and absolutely fell in love with being able to take something flat to create things that were 3-dimensional, fluid, dynamic, and functional. I focused on costumes with my A.S., but I rounded out my theatre arts experience with my B.A., working as both technician and designer for sets, lights, sound, and props in addition to costumes. I loved seeing both sides of the coin for each specialty, and it truly helped me understand all aspects of theatre design and how they interact with each other. The skills I learned at Plymouth added to my own various personal crafting experiences (bookbinding, stamp/lino carving, knitting, crochet, polymer clay sculpting, painting, decoupage, to name a few), and my experience with so many different materials and techniques means I have a lot of knowledge to pull from for creative solutions and I experiment with and learn how to handle new materials more quickly.
I have worked with several theaters in the Bay Area including San Francisco Playhouse, Custom Made Theatre Co., Cutting Ball Theater, and EXIT Theatre. In addition to freelance design, I have worked for San Francisco Playhouse for seven years, starting as a Technical Design Intern before being hired on and serving as Wardrobe Assistant, Production Assistant, COVID Compliance Officer, and Props and Costume Supervisor. I also served as Resident Props Designer for Custom Made Theatre Co.'s 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons and have worked directly with independent designers to complete their visions. There is a creativity to design that I love, of plumbing a script for details and combining that with the director's vision to create garments that tell a story, objects whose function is as much art as literal functionality; but I also love the creativity of being the implementer as a technician, of finding ways to create what the designer put on paper.
Artist's Statement
My approach to design is heavily influenced by my experiences at Cañada College and Plymouth State University. At Cañada, the fashion degrees were technical science degrees, and our teachers stressed the importance of knowing how fabric, seams, and closures worked because we "could design the most beautiful [garment] in the world, but it doesn't matter if there is no way into it." Similarly at Plymouth, my advisor stressed that "design is creative problem solving" and no matter how beautiful, artistic, or creative a design is, it isn't a good design if it can't be realized; time and budget were factors just as important as details from the script and artistic vision. This mindset has helped me both design and implement the designs of others by learning how to distill out the most necessary parts of an idea or vision: learning what questions to ask, what story is being told, and what details/items matter most for that message.