ISAAC EMORY

Cabaret was my second student production assignment and my first lead designer position. Something I loved about this design process was our director Danielle's inspiration boards on pinterest. Having such a strong and interesting aesthetic base made the world of the play so clear in my mind. Because Cabaret is a show that can have some pretty revealing costumes and because we were putting it on at a university, Danielle and I were frequently in close conversation about actor comfort and safety. For this show I used something I have ended up calling "modesty charts" - essentially I handed an outline of a body to each actor and I asked them to color in what they needed to be covered in order to feel comfotable and safe. I invited them to tell me about negotiable and non-negotiable boundaries and did my best to ensure that the whole cast was comfotable and confident in their costumes. I think opening this channel of communication is really important; not only does it give actors some agency in their bodies, but it also saves me time and budget by avoiding last minute issues that would only be discovered in dress rehearsals.