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| Shana Lincoln. |
By Keith Waits
Entire contents copyright © 2012 Keith
Waits. All rights reserved.
When the cast of the upcoming Iroquois
Amphitheatre production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore takes the stage on August 17, it will be a highly
anticipated show for any number of good reasons. Members of the Gilbert &
Sullivan Society have reason to rejoice, for one. But another very good reason
will be the opportunity to see the work of Costume Designer Shana Lincoln in
full flower.
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| Ralph, or Boatswain, from H.M.S. Pinafore. Renderings by Shana Lincoln. All rights reserved. |
Ms. Lincoln’s work is popping up on stages
all over town. In the last year alone, her costumes have been seen in A Little Night Music at Center Stage, The Rocky Horror Show at Pandora
Productions and Volpone at Walden
Theatre. On top of that, her position as Resident Costume Designer for Savage
Rose Classical Theatre Company this past season afforded the opportunity to
clothe actors appearing in the works of Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett and William
Shakespeare.
While certainly not the only locally based
costume designer, she has found herself in great demand since becoming a
free-lance professional a little over one year ago. The abundance of work might
be the pay-off on a gamble she made several years ago when the native
Louisvillian came home after first pursuing a career in Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania, where jobs proved difficult to come by. “It was hard to get work
there unless you had connections.”
Eventually family obligations brought her
back to this area, and within two weeks she had secured a job with Actors
Theatre as a draper, cutting patterns in the costume shop. It was a situation
that positioned her to connect to the larger theatrical community, and it
wasn’t long before opportunity come knocking in the form of Charlie Sexton,
Artistic Director of Walden Theatre. Having recently expanded their spring
performance slot to once again accommodate a repertory schedule of three plays
– now formally called the Young American Shakespeare Festival – he needed a
designer hungry for work. Shana fit the bill perfectly.
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| Timon of Athens for Walden Theatre. Photo by Shana Lincoln. |
Her first show with Walden was an all-female
production of The Merchant of Venice
directed by J. Barrett Cooper. Shana’s interest in detail and period accuracy
suited her director’s own deep understanding of history and devotion to
classical theatre. “Barrett has a very specific vision of what he wants to see
on stage, which isn’t true of all directors,” says Shana. The two very quickly
discovered their sensibilities were so in tune that they developed something of
a shorthand in their communications when working.
When in 2009 Cooper launched Savage Rose
Classical Theatre Company, he asked Lincoln to be his Resident Designer. So
far, she has designed nearly all of their shows, including Doctor Faustus, a production noted for a striking visual design
that was dominated by a particularly memorable depiction of Mephistophilis. The
character was portrayed as a woman and played by Hallie Dizdarevic with a
surreal, distracted quality that was balanced by a sexy, vampy dress that
married a modern sensibility to the period structure. “The image was drawn from
research, but there was freedom that came from it being an otherworldly
character. I gave her a plunging neckline and slit the princess seams to reveal
more thigh than the period would allow, so she would be more…tantalizing.” Seeing
the actress at work in rehearsal also informed such decisions. “When I saw how
she was moving, it became very important, because normally the actors don’t get
the costumes until very late in rehearsal and the adjustments allowed her the
freedom of movement she needed to create that performance.”
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| Mephistophilis in Doctor Faustus for Savage Rose Classical Theatre Co. Photo by Shana Lincoln. |
Much of a costume designer’s job involves
shopping and procuring the necessary pieces from various inventories, and it is
rare that she gets to construct new designs from scratch. “When there are
multiples, several characters wearing the same thing, you often have to build.
Two or more of the same thing almost requires it.” Ms. Lincoln enjoys the alternating dynamic of
building and searching. “Shopping is like solving a puzzle and works the
organizational side of my brain, and building works the creative, so it keeps
me balanced.”
Her latest project achieves this harmony with
an opportunity to shop and build in equal measure for material that calls for
an abundance of style. Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore affords the opportunity to outfit the large
ensemble cast in the 19th century naval uniforms and women’s dresses that are
so emblematic of the classic comic operetta. The preparation has required
Lincoln to draft full renderings of many of the costumes, something she rarely
does.
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| Buttercup from H.M.S. Pinafore. Rendering by Shana Lincoln. All rights reserved. |
The production is being directed by Gregory
Maupin, co-founder of Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble, a troupe known for its
free-wheeling and unorthodox comedic style. “Warner Bros. cartoons have
actually come up in early discussions,” says Lincoln, as she finds yet another
distinctive and individual director-designer relationship, one with its own
unique creative language.
As Mr. Maupin tells it: “I chose her not just
because she's worked on this stage before, which makes a difference, but also
because we share a certain sense of humor, which I know sounds odd when dealing
with costumes; but it simplifies so much. We've been talking about Looney Tunes
and Fawlty Towers and things during
this process. And while no one in the cast will look or behave like Daffy Duck
or John Cleese, precisely, the allusion-as-shorthand is important to
communication.”
Yet the creative goals reach far beyond the
measure of shared pop culture touchstones. “Shana is terrific at combining two
vital concepts of theater design,” Maupin continues. “She has ideas, creative
notions, etc., but can also bring them in on a budget. That meshing is a big
deal. Plenty of people can come up with lovely theoretical designs, which she
does, and plenty can do things cheaply. But she is very good at knowing how to
achieve in the real world what's been thrown on the table, whether by her or by
me.”
The high praise is not surprising to anyone
who has seen her work in action. Ms. Lincoln has designed for many local
companies that have little or no budget, and she has demonstrated over and over
again that she knows how to stretch a dollar. With remarkable creative
ingenuity, she has repeatedly filled the stage with costumes that must carry the
burden of set design as well when there is little set available: costumes
capable of establishing a sense of place and setting the tone for the entire
production.
Shana Lincoln’s web site:
Iroquois Amphitheater Presents
Gilbert & Sullivan's
H.M.S. Pinafore
or The Lass that Loved a Sailor
directed by Gregory Maupin
August 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25 @ 8 p.m.
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