Hometown: Freetown Sierra Leone
Education: MFA in Design for Stage and Film, NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Favorite Credits: Fabuloso and Bug, with the Boundless theater Co. Pericles with the Black Theater Co. Spring Awakening and Hairspray with Theater Co. Dirt and Evolution of a Criminal with Darius Monroe.
Why theater?: It is a platform on which I can collaborate with fellow artists and thinkers, telling stories and activating the way we think and reflect about humanity.
What is your role on Prospect?: Costume Designer
Tell us about Prospect: A story about identity. It follows the character Scout, who encounters other characters who are all including himself, masking who they really are. He has to come to terms with his heritage and spiritually connect with how he wants the world to see who he is.
What is inspiring your design of Prospect?: The 1980s and Texas
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: All kinds of theater. Life inspires me as an artist. Human beings are fascinating creatures and I am always surprised, inspired, disgusted and awed with how human beings behave towards themselves and towards each other.
What makes a design “successful”?: Communication
How do you approach your work individually and collaboratively?: It always starts with the script. There are always elements, something that inspires and makes it easy for me to latch onto to start the research process. I come to the table with ideas no matter how small or frail they may seem. I stay open and listen to the collaborators in the room.
What is your favorite part about the collaboration process?: I love technical rehearsal week. Seeing how all the elements, the actors, the clothing, the lights, the set, the sound, everything comes together. I enjoy the preparation for the last element, the audience.
If you could design any play or musical you’ve yet to design, what would it be?: A ballet.
What’s up next?: A Winters Tale produced by the New York Classical theater co.
Boundless Theatre Company will present the New York Premiere of Octavio Solis’ PROSPECT, directed by Elena Araoz at Teatro Circulo (64 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), May 19-June 5. Tickets ($18) are available online at www.boundlesstheatre.org
