Sewn Up
We first caught wind of Kimberly Glennon when some photographs of her striking costume and makeup work for the Classical Theatre of Harlem's production of Macbeth showed up in our inbox. The self-trained costume designer has had steady work with the CTH as well as with the Women's Shakespeare Company, The American Place Theatre, St. Bart's Players, and others. It turns out she built the 40 some odd costumes for Macbeth by hand, sewing through the night in her New York City apartment.
CTH's kickoff production to the 2006-2007 season is King Lear, which opens 29 September starring André De Shields with artistic director Alfred Preisser. Kimberly told us that the entire show will be costumed with an "Ancient Persia and Abyssinia" theme, which fits with her practice of working with the director to imagine new worlds that are "inspired by" the style of a certain period without slavishly following it detail for detail. When we spoke to her, she had just completed the first fitting of the 30 or so costumes for the show.
An English major from Case University with a background in theater performance, Kimberly is a self-taught costumer who learned on the job. (We have mad respect for that around here.) She says that her academic background allows her to approach costume design somewhat differently as she reads scripts with the eye of an English major trained to interpret texts. Among other awards, Kimberly won the OBIE Award for her costuming of "The Blacks" for CTH in 2003.
21 September 2006