Toward the end of summer, the DEI Committee sat down with Rebecca Turk, who is joining the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts as an Assistant Professor of Costume Design this year.
Rebecca is a professional costume designer and arts educator with over twenty years of experience. Her work has been featured by premier theatre and ballet companies around the globe. She holds a PhD in Arts Administration, Education and Policy with a specialization in Art Education and an interdisciplinary specialization in the Analysis of Material Culture.
Here is a transcript of our conversation:
How has inclusion featured in your design process?
Inclusion was a major component of my previous appointment at Denison University. I was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Costume Design, and I started during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Autumn 2020. There were so many unknowns and we had to figure out how we could rehearse and perform in ways that wouldn’t risk anyone’s health, keeping in mind that not all disabilities are visible.
I embraced PPE as a design concept. So instead of thinking, ‘we want to do X, but instead we have to do Y because of masking,’ I thought of emerging ideas about social distancing and PPE as jump-off points in the design process.
That’s super interesting, can you clarify what that looked like in practice?
Our first production was outdoors. Initially, we had been thinking about doing a narrative theatrical piece, but they didn’t have the joy that we, as a department, wanted to inject into the moment. So, instead we opted for a form of promenade theatre that was based on a recent alum’s poetry. We had a large cast of about twenty performers. Each member of the cast recorded a voiceover that was played as a soundscape, and then there was a movement-based performance that circumnavigated the Arts Quad.
I love that there are elements of control, such as the pre-recorded voices, but also a sense of improvisation. Like anything could happen…
Yes, and the costumes reflected this same sense of spontaneity. Everyone was dressed in painters’ coveralls. In the costume shop, the students and I did an ice-dying technique. With this technique, you have to relinquish some control. Usually, in costume design, if you want a specific result, you know how to get it, but how this costume turns out depends on the shape of the ice, the temperature, the pressure of the bindings, and even the nature of the dye. No matter how hard you try, you can’t control all the variables. And they turned out beautifully, each with their own unique character. After the dying, we added floral appliqués that burst from the coveralls to connect with the imagery of the poems.
I’m fascinated by the abstraction that you incorporated into the costume design of this piece! Is that sense of abstraction a major part of your teaching?
It’s always a balancing act. Sometimes, these abstractions can enrich a production, but at other times it can be important for designs to touch on audiences’ assumptions and expectations, otherwise they might not know how to ‘read’ the costumes.
This comes up a lot in the classroom. Students are often surprised how much research goes into costume design! It’s also important to note that these are ethical questions, especially when determining how to represent different races, ethnicities, sexualities, or abilities. So as a designer, you must consider the historical context of the production, but also be careful to avoid forms of expression that might exclude, marginalize, or insult historically oppressed groups of people, all the while thinking about the goals of the director, the comfort of the cast, and the expectations of the audience. These are big considerations for young students, especially for a generation that tends to be so anxious about cultural appropriation that they are sometimes resistant to cultural appreciation.
That makes so much sense. What other variables are you considering in the classroom?
Many design courses have students from various backgrounds. Not just in terms of social groups or identities, but in terms of their educational program. Not all the students are in the department. So, in the classroom, we’re always setting clear parameters, workshopping one another’s ideas respectfully, and looking for ways to uplift the designs to be as successful as possible. Even if the assignment is low-stakes in terms of grades, the moment often feels high-stakes for students.
Before we wrap up, there is a lot of industry critique happening right now. I’m thinking of the SAG-AFTRA strike. I think I saw that you are a major proponent of trade unions for entertainment workers, is that right?
Yes, I’m a member of the professional union for designers, United Scenic Artists Local 829. I’m also a part of their Strategic Planning Task Force. We’re trying to correct some of the inequities of the industry, such as a lack of diversity and pay inequities. These aren’t new issues, but the pandemic really highlighted some of the industry’s shortcomings particularly around DEI. I’m proud to be a part of the change.