Greetings from the Barn! Since my last column, we’ve opened “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” a funny and heartwarming musical. We’re also in rehearsal for our fourth show of the season, “Native Gardens” – a smart modern comedy about two couples trying to be good neighbors.
The costume designer for both shows is Sierra Madison, who is also our costume shop supervisor for the entire season. She’s assisted by several wonderful staff and Core Company members. I reached out to her between rehearsals and costume fittings to share a little about her background and the difference between her two jobs. It has been edited for space.
BF: What’s your history with the Players? How did you hear about them, how long have you been a part of the theater, and what’s different this year?
SM: I began working with the Players during the 2024 summer season and I heard about them through a job posting on Playbill. This year is different for me because I have stepped into a new role, costume shop supervisor/designer. Last summer, I was assisting this position; now I have a lot more responsibility in the integrity and all costume-related decisions. I am not only running the “shack” (where the costume shop is located) but also making the creative decisions for two of our shows.
BF: What are your duties as the costume shop supervisor for the season?
SM: My responsibilities are to ensure that the costume designer’s vision is realized in a budget-appropriate and time-efficient way. I handle all the purchasing and communication on the costume front, and that includes organizing the budget for each show. I oversee all fittings that come through the shack, performing all the pinning and prep for alterations. My costume team consists of Ollie Webb (costume shop assistant supervisor), Wilbur Banasik (wardrobe supervisor), Caroline Smith (costumes Core Company), Alioth Clewell (costumes Core Company),- and Audrey Russell (costumes Core Company). Every costume build or alteration passes through all hands in the costume shop to become the finished picture on stage.
BF: Can you share a little of what it means to be the costume designer for a musical versus a contemporary play? When did your process start with “Spelling Bee” and “Native Gardens”?
SM: The musical this year is also a contemporary show with its own unique challenge of making adults seem like children in a spelling bee. Each show that I approach from a design perspective starts with a deep analysis of every character. The process started in February: we met countless times as a whole group and one-on-one with the directors collaborating on what the final show would look like.
For a show like “Spelling Bee,” I need to nail the overall personality of each character on the first try as the show spans only one day. For “Native Gardens,” I get to build a closet of clothes each character would wear and think about how the storyline influences their clothing choices day-to-day. For contemporary shows like these, the audience is looking at clothes they likely see every day; the challenge is making the characters feel real and like they themselves went to stores and picked each piece.
BF: Could you give an example with “Spelling Bee” of the challenge of not making the characters seem like caricatures? For example, could you take one of the characters and talk about what would be “too much” versus just right?
SM: I’ll use Marcy Park as a specific example in “Spelling Bee.” I was interested in her uptight personality and how she strives for perfection. I wanted her to be in a very “put together” outfit. The way I specifically made this uptight perfectionist child appear less like a small adult was to mix patterns you would not think of putting together, such as plaid, argyle and polka dots. Marcy uses many colorful and fun-shaped hair clips to keep her hairstyle perfect as well. If I had put Marcy in a fully matching set, she would have appeared too old or mature for the age group assembled for the spelling bee.
BF: Can you share one thing you love about being a costume designer, and something you love about being the costume shop supervisor?
SM: The thing I love most about being a costume designer is the collaboration between all the creative partners. As the costume shop supervisor, I get to teach the next generation of stitchers what it is like to work in a professional environment. Combining skills they already had with new skills they learn here at the Players, they get to see all their hard work pay off at every opening night performance.
Brendon Fox is artistic director of the Peterborough Players.