Notes in a Darkened Theater

One of my small joys is being in a space before something big is about happen. In a restaurant as servers polish glasses before the evening shift. The press room before the press conference, when people are just finding their seats. A church before a wedding. And the theater before the play.

Paul Tazewell makes his living in that last space, sitting alone in a dark theater, sometimes with a few people around him, taking notes on seemingly random afternoons as he sees his costume creations come to life on the stage. The actors, start, stop, the lights are being calibrated, and he watches how his contribution begins to create a life on stage.

He makes notes about a hat that really doesn't work, the fact that a dresser wrapped a cummerbund wrong, or a hem that drags the floor. It's the end of the process for him, a process that started in his imagination, then was communicated through art. But his process ends even the instant before the curtain rises on opening night.

He's one of the best large-scale costume designers in the business, and an exhibit of his sketches and costumes just closed in Randolph County, N.C. You can read about his process and the exhibit in this recent article in Go Triad. 

Tazwell designs from an Opera Omaha production