Theoni V. Aldredge's costume design for Broadway theatre

Theoni V. Aldredge

Discussion of Theoni V. Aldredge: One of America's Most Gifted Costume Designers

According to one admirer, Theoni V. Aldredge is one of America's most gifted costume designers. To date, her stage credits have included "I Can get it for You Wholesale," "Mr. President," "Anyone can Whistle," "A Chorus Line," "Annie," "42nd Street," "Dreamgirls," "Chess" and "The Secret Garden." When designing costumes for a period piece, it is not unusual for Aldredge to alter original fashions to make her designs more palatable for modern audiences. To determine how Aldredge achieves this goal, this paper provides a background and overview of the designer, followed by relevant biographical information. A discussion concerning Aldredge's alteration of original fashions for contemporary audiences will be followed by a summary of the research in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview. In the more than 40 years since her auspicious New York debut designing costumes for Geraldine Page in "Sweet Bird of Youth," Theoni V. Aldredge has worked with an enormous range of stellar talents on the American stage, ranging from Arthur Laurents and David Merrick ("I Can Get it for You Wholesale") to Joseph Papp (with a 20-year run as resident designer at Papp's Public Theatre) and Michael Bennett ("A Chorus Line, Ballroom" and "Dream Girls" (Lampert-Greaux 2002). Other biographers enthuse that: "Stately and charmingly masterful, Theoni V. Aldredge has a presence that often awes and inspires her leading ladies. She has worked with all of Hollywood's top actors and has enjoyed association with Faye Dunaway, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Midler, Angela Landsbury, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Lauren Bacall, Sigourney Weaver, and many others" (Theoni V. Aldredge 2004).

Among Aldredge's recent projects include the 2001 Broadway revival of Follies to new plays at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey. "What I love about the theatre," Aldredge says, "is that you don't do it done. it's the collaborative team that's so wonderful" (Lampert-Greaux 37). Aldrege's most notable design credits include "Skyscraper" (1965), "A Chorus Line" (1975), Annie (1977), "Ballroom" (1978), "The Grand Tour" (1979), "Barnum" (1980), "42nd Street" (1980), "Dreamgirls" (1981), "La Cage aux Folles" (1983), "Chess" (1985), "Teddy and Alice" (1987), the 1990 black version of "Oh, Kay!" And "The Secret Garden" (1991); however, these productions are just a mere sampling of this designer's prolific repertoire which extends to hundreds of productions, including the sampling shown in Table 1 below:

Table 1. Timeline of Theoni V. Aldredge's Designs on Broadway [Source: Owen 1987 and Hischak 1993].

1959: Sweet Bird of Youth (Miss Geraldine Page's Clothes. With Anna Hill Johnstone); Nervous Set, the; Flowering Cherry; Silent Night, Lonely Night

1960: Distant Bell, a;

1959: Sweet Bird of Youth (Miss Geraldine Page's Clothes. With Anna Hill Johnstone); Nervous Set, the; Flowering Cherry; Silent Night, Lonely Night

1960: Distant Bell, a; Best Man, the 1961: Devil's Advocate, the; I Can Get it for You Wholesale; Mary, Mary; First Love

1962: Mr. President; TchinTchin

1988: Merlin; Private Lives; Corn Is Green, the; La Cage Aux Folles

1991: Secret Garden, the Aldredge has also worked extensively in film, television, ballet and opera. According to the Costume Designers Guild (2004), Aldredge's film credits include "Network," "The Eyes of Laura Mars," "The Rose," "Moonstruck," "Annie," "Ghostbusters," "Addams Family Values," "The First Wives Club," and "The Mirror has Two Faces" (Theoni V. Aldredge 2004).

In addition, Aldredge has designed costumes for the television productions of "After the Fall," "A Streetcar Named Desire,"* and television specials including "Cole Porter in Paris," "Barishnikov on Broadway," as well as a number of others; in addition, Aldredge also designed the costumes for the 1980, 1985, and 1987 productions of the Academy Award show (Theoni V. Aldredge 2004).

Biographical Information about Theoni V. Aldredge. Theoni V. Aldredge was born Theoni Athanasiou Vachilioti in Salonika, Greece on August 22, 1932 (Brennan 2004). Aldredge was educated at the American School in Athens and then at the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago. In fact, when it comes to incorporating color into her designs, Aldredge reports that she has a passion for pale lavender: "I use it in every show, often with pale blue and white. These are the colors of my country" (Lampert-Greaux 2002:38). She has designed extensively for stage and film as can be seen from a sampling of her productions at Appendix a. Aldredge's first professional designs were created over a half century ago for the Goodman Theatre in 1950 (Owen 1987). In 1957, Aldredge moved to New York City where she established a long association with Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival. Since that time, in New York alone, she had designed over 165 shows by 1987 (Owen 1987).

Aldredge is married to actor Tom Aldredge and is well-known for the quality of her designs* and her attention to period detail and heightened theatricality; as a result, she has won three Tony Awards** and 11 nominations. In 1969, the designer also won the Maharam Award for her designs for Peer Gynt. In addition, Aldredge has designed a number of films, in particular "The Great Gatsby," for which she was presented with an Academy Award (Barnes 1998). According to the Costume Designers Guild (2004), "The elegant sensuality of Mia Farrow as a flapper in 'The Great Gatsby' is one of the enduring images created by costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge. It was a look that won an Academy award for Ms. Aldredge and underscored her considerable talent in the film genre" (1).

In 2002, the Theatre Development Fund awarded a lifetime achievement award to Aldredge during their Irene Sharaff awards for costume design (Awards & Prizes 2002). The awards are given by Theatre Development Fund with support of the Tobin Foundation for Theatrical Arts, and are named after legendary costume designer Irene Sharaff and honor the art of costume design (Davis 2002). Upon being presented with the award, Aldredge said: "I am excited, as Irene Sharaff was an important influence in my life, a great designer, and my friend" (Lampert-Greaux 2002:37).

Rationale in Support of the Alteration of Original Fashions for Modern Audiences. According to Cole and Krich (1963), staging a theater production is not a one-time endeavor, but it is rather an iterative function that involves some trials and hits and misses. These authors note that in collaboration with the costume designer, stage directors must weave a complete picture of a scene together for the audience, including the entire spectrum of details that goes along with this ideal (Cole & Krich 1963). Many designers, though, believe that the delivery of costume sketches, a major portion of their own creative work is genuinely complete. "What is necessary, however, is an incomplete design; a design that has clarity without rigidity; one that could be called 'open' as against 'shut.' This is the essence of theatrical thinking: a true theatre designer will think of his designs as being all the time in motion, in action, in relation to what the actor brings to a scene as it unfolds" (Payne 1974:35).

According to Barbara Stratyner, curator for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, there are enormous technical challenges and creative processes that are involved in turning a designer's sketch into a finished costume. An exhibition at the library helped to illustrate the processes involved in the construction one costume, Norma Desmond pajamas and robe that were designed by Anthony Powell. These were interpreted by the curatorial staff with the designer's sketch; a muslin mock-up that was used to evaluate the garment's fit, proportion, and comfort; beading samples; and the finished garments (New York's Top Costume Shop Reveals Its Secrets 1996).

Even when all of these elaborate preparatory steps have been taken, though, the professional costume designer is just getting started in the overall design process. For instance, renowned designer Barbara Matera explained that when Glenn Close first tried on the Norma Desmond costume described above, she "winced under its weight" (New York's Top Costume Shop Reveals Its Secrets 1996:3). The costume's designer, Anthony Powell, instructed Close to turn around and face the mirror, and "upon seeing the stunning result her whole attitude changed" (4). Other anecdotal accounts on the design process from Matera included: "We love shows that have underwear scenes" (referring to bustles, corsets, and pantaloons), and "bird costumes can be very taxing"; these comments provide some insight into the creative challenges that face costume designers and makers today.

Each character that appears in a production must be individually assessed, and gradually each movement of each character and each costume must then be integrated into a cohesive whole that presents the imagery desired. "At any rate," Cole et al. say, "slowly, harmoniously, must the whole design develop, so that the eye of the beholder shall be satisfied" (153). In this regard, the artists who have worked with Aldredge had consistently pointed to the high quality of workmanship and design, but another common theme that emerges from the research is the genius that Aldredge brings to the table in combining distinctly effective design elements that specifically evoke the historical periods involved while appealing to modern audiences.

This is not a talent that can be learned, perhaps, but simply refined over the years as designers gain the experience and wisdom that comes from hundreds of productions and having worked with a number of talented people. In their biography, the Costume Designers Guild (2004) reports that Aldredge is "a meticulous and tireless researcher as well as a fine and dedicated illustrator. Her touch is elegant and subtle, her color palate poignant rather then strident. Those who work with her share an admiration for her work style and dedicate approach to costume design" (3). According to Heather Wisner's article, "Dressed and Impressed" (2002), the professional artists who have worked with Aldredge have extensive experience in all facets of the industry and they have all worked in dance and performed theater and plays. Wisner reports that these artists have enjoyed what they were given to wear by Aldredge and that her designs "evoke what people really wore using modern materials and their imagination. it's really hard trying to get the best of both worlds" (52).

From Payne's perspective, "Costumes, like properties, are all-important to the actor; they concern him more directly than any property or item of setting. Every designer should be able to design costumes and know the fundamental practices of costume construction" (71). In his book, the Dramatic Imagination, Robert Edmond Jones (1941) made several excellent points concerning the design of costumes:

In learning how a costume for the stage is designed and made, we have to go through a certain amount of routine training. We must learn about patterns, and about periods. We have to know what farthingales are, and wimples, and patches and caleches and parures and godets and appliques and passementerie. We have to know the instant we see and touch a fabric what it will look like on the stage both in movement and in repose. We have to develop the brains that are in our fingers. We have to experiment endlessly until our work is as nearly perfect as we can make it, until we are, so to speak, released from it.... (in Payne 71).

In recent years, though, Aldredge has appeared to lead the way for other designers away from the romantic conception of costume design. Payne says that, "More and more, dress for the stage is 'selected' rather than designed, assembled rather than constructed" (72). This author identified an early trend wherein costume designers were beginning to use old clothes found in secondhand stores and out of attics instead of constructing costumes from brand new fabrics, and then having them aged and broken down after they are completed. "Some designers will in fact, when designing costumes that are required to show great use and age, find their materials in old ready-made garments and then, after taking these garments apart, recut them into new patterns for costumes completely different from their original purpose and use" (Payne 73). In recent years, there has also been a corresponding rise in interest in more exotic materials, not only synthetic fabrics, but plastics, metals, furs, and leather as well. Payne notes that the introduction of fiber glass cloth and strands, as well as other plastic impregnated materials that harden when exposed to chemical treatment, have provided costume designers with a wide range of opportunities that were not possible just a few years ago.

According to Payne, if there is one major discernible trend in the progress of costume design during these past several decades, it is that costume designers have become less and less "just a dressmaker," and "more and more a highly creative and independent artist whose techniques and artistry extend much further than just knowing how to sew a straight seam, cut a pattern, or dye a piece of cloth" (Payne 73). In this regard, one actor described an Aldredge costume thusly: "The Sally Bowles costume doesn't duplicate what Liza Minnelli wore in the movie, but it is in keeping with the Weimar era. The costume is just beautiful; it's tasteful and sexy. It looks period but it also dances and breathes -- it fulfills the requirements brilliantly" (Wisner 53). Much like the observational approach to humor used by Jerry Seinfeld, Aldredge has clearly managed to keep closely in touch with the cultural icons that have historically characterized American society and seems to instinctively know what will work on stage and what will not in tying such imagery to her costume designs.

For example, when Amanda McKerrow, principal dancer, was asked what her favorite Aldredge design was for a stage production by the American Ballet Company, she suggested that her favorite was a design that was evocative of the once-popular television series, "I Dream of Jeannie":

guess I would have to say the costume from the snake scene in Act I. it's gauzy silk chiffon, harem pants and, in some productions, a bare midriff -- maybe someone didn't want us showing our tummies, so ours have netting. There's a long turban with a scarf, and beautiful, intricate beading -- I had an I Dream of Jeannie fantasy when I was a kid, so it's great. it's very comfortable, although at one point I do a tour jete to one knee, and I cut up my knee pretty badly the first time because I didn't move the beading out of the way (53).

A fairly recent review* by David Barbour of "The Spitfire Grill," a new but implausible show presented at Playwrights Horizons and taken from the 1995 film, about a young woman who, just released from prison, moves to a dying small town and changes the lives of everyone there, shows that Aldredge still has what it takes to make or break a theatrical production: "It's a sentimental tale -- barely plausible at times -- and not really my kind of show. Yet, thanks to the first-rate [design elements of Aldredge], I found myself deeply moved" (27).

Conclusion

The research showed that Theoni V. Aldredge has designed costumes for more than 200 Broadway shows, including "Annie," "Barnum," "La Cage aux Folles," and "A Chorus Line," and received an Irene Sharaff award for lifetime achievement from the Theatre Development Fund in 2002. Aldredge is married to actor Tom Aldredge and she was inducted into the Theater Hall of fame in 1986; she was later awarded the New York Liberty Medal. Her Broadway and off-Broadway credits are extensive, and include over 20 years as Principal Designer for Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival.