Fitting room: Watching the costumes take shape for ‘Kilele’

The tragedy known as the Bojayá massacre happened in a small fishing village situated on the banks of the Atrato River, in the Afro-Colombian Pacific region of Colombia. 

In May 2002, two warring factions fighting for control of the territory began exchanging fire in the town of Bellavista, in Bojayá municipality. Many of the townspeople sought safety inside the village’s church. But a gas cylinder bomb launched by guerilla forces went through the roof of the church and exploded inside, killing an estimated 79 people (a total of 119 died in the attack).

The spiritual fallout from this calamity is the basis for the play “Kilele: Una Epopeya Artesanal,” which opened on January 25 at the University Theater and ran through January 31. The title translates to “Kilele (a chant of rebellion and joy): An Artisanal Epic.” It was one of the David Geffen School of Drama’s Directors’ Thesis Productions, in which third-year students pursuing an M.F.A. in directing propose a play to be produced with their peers. 

This production’s director, Juliana Morales Carreño, a third-year M.F.A. student from Bogotá, worked with her peers in acting, design, sound design, dramaturgy, and stage management for months to bring the complex work by Colombian playwright Felipe Vergara Lombana to the stage. 

Tricie Bergmann, a second-year M.F.A. student in design, was tasked with coming up with costumes that reflect the culture and spiritual beliefs of the region’s indigenous peoples, as well as the symbolism behind Lombana’s characters. 

“In this play we have characters that are spirits, characters that are humans, and characters that are in between, like the river and the Angel of Death,” said Carreño.

After consulting with Carreño, Bergmann brought her ideas to the production experts in the drama school’s costume shop, which creates the costumes for about 11 shows a year for both David Geffen School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theatre. In addition to making costumes from scratch, the shop can draw on an extensive stock of previous costumes that stretches back decades.

Bergmann, who is from Vienna, Austria, attended fashion school in Amsterdam before deciding she preferred costume design. Before coming to Yale, she worked in costume production management for the Vienna State Opera and the Volksoper Wien.

Over the past few months Bergmann and the costume shop staff allowed Yale News to follow along as costume creations took shape. Below are some snapshots of the process. 

First look

Nov. 14 — Late afternoon sunlight streams into the York Street studios of the costume shop, in the University Theatre. Christine Szczepanski, the shop manager, and several staff members are gathered around a worktable where Bergmann is presenting her colorful costume sketches. 

Bergmann outlines the structure of the play and then points out each character. The “little gods” have loose, pajama-like outfits with rainboots, bandoliers, and face masks. The women of the town wear long skirts and carry parasols. The saints’ garb will have a paint treatment that resembles cracked plaster, an effect inspired by the statue of Jesus that survived the church bombing. 

At the opening of the play, the Angel of Death appears in the theater aisle. In Bergmann’s vision, this character will be represented by an eight-foot puppet with moving wings, by far the most challenging costume to create. 

“It’s going to be really crazy, and so far, nobody has stopped me, so we’re doing it,” Bergmann says excitedly. 

The staff peppers her with questions. What is the cultural significance of the striping on the little gods’ costumes? How does she want the strips of fabric sewn together to create that striping effect? Are elastic waistbands suitable for the pants?

The discussion ends after about an hour. The next step is for the shop’s drapers to create patterns and make mock-ups of the costumes out of plain, inexpensive fabric. Those mock-ups will be fitted to the appropriate cast members, and then used to make the final costumes out of the fabric Bergmann has selected. 

Pins and needles

Nov. 26 — Gretta Marston, a second-year student in acting, stands before a mirror in the costume shop’s small fitting room, wearing a baggy mock-up of one of the little god costumes. Clarissa Wylie-Youngberg, the senior draper, adjusts the waist and pant length as Pat Van Horn, the senior first hand (who assists in pattern creation and construction), hands her pins and jots down notes. 

Bergmann is also there to offer her input. She hands Marston the boots and bandolier, to get the full effect. 

“Oh, this so fits with the character description!” Marston says delightedly as she swirls before the mirror. 

“I’m trying!” Bergmann replies. 

Marston, like most of the cast members, plays several roles, so she must do two additional costume fittings. Next is a long skirt and short-sleeved blouse, which was already in the costume shop’s stock of clothing. That is followed by a floor-length floral dress with flared sleeves, which was purchased from eBay and will be paired with a parasol. 

Marston decides that her long hair should be worn up for the third costume. Taking in her reflection, she says, “I feel like a parrot.” 

“Perfect,” Bergmann says. “You’re supposed to look like a bird.”

The drapers will now use the fitted pattern pieces to create the little god costume. Before they all leave, Szczepanski, the shop manager, confirms that Marston was able to find a comfortable bra from their in-house supply, as — who knew? — theaters routinely provide actors with underwear. 

“That will live with you now,” Szczepanski says. “When you graduate, you’ll get your certificate, your diploma, and your bra.”

Final fitting

Dec. 12 — Marston is back for the fitting of the finished little god costume. The fabric has been sewn in neutral-colored strips with exposed seams; Bergmann will hand-dye it once the alterations are complete. 

The long sleeves cover Marston’s hands when her arms are down — Bergmann wants them that way so that when Marston raises her arms in the air on stage, the sleeves will slide down to reveal black leather gloves. The costume also includes a newly hand-crafted mask with feathers. 

“I like doing fittings when the costume becomes part of the actor,” says Wylie-Youngberg. “It helps you figure out what you’re doing with it.” 

In another room, Susan Aziz, a draper, has completed the giant cardboard-sculptured face for the Angel of Death. The profile, which has a prominent nose, was inspired by photos of sculptures from Central America, she says. 

The puppet fitting is happening in a few days. The shop has enlisted outside help for this creation: a local giant-puppet maker, Anne Cubberly, who was the artistic director for the non-profit performance group Night Fall Hartford for nearly 16 years. 

Puppet show

Dec. 16 — Emma Steiner, a second-year student in acting, is testing out the puppet contraption for the first time. Harnesses around her shoulders and a belt around her hips support a PVC-pipe structure that elevates the giant face and plastic, tentacle-like wings on either side above her head. 

To make the wings moveable, Cubberly rigged fishing line through the flexible corrugated plastic and attached it to pulleys. 

“I did many trials before this one,” she said. “It’s a very tricky thing to work out.” 

Steiner practices walking with the puppet frame hovering over her head, trying not to let it wobble, while also pulling on strings to make the wing ends curl. Other fabric elements will be added to the structure later, and Aziz will also build a rib cage for it. For now, it’s all about the mechanics. 

To that end, the assembled crew follows Szczepanski into the theater so they can work out whether Steiner can fit through doorways and beneath the mezzanine as her character walks through the audience. Both are problematic. 

Last-minute tweaks 

Jan. 21 – Four days before the show opens, the finished costumes are on full display at a dress rehearsal. 

Aziz has reduced the size of the puppet head so that Steiner will not have to duck beneath the mezzanine. But the costume still does not fit through the theater doorways, so Steiner will change into her puppet costume in the back of the house during the pre-show announcements.

Bergmann also made some last-minute adjustments to the little gods’ costumes. Once the actors were moving around in them, she discovered that some of the masks’ hanging elements were getting caught in the costumes, and a scene involving wrestling detached their bandoliers.

“I had to tweak some things to make the costumes workable,” she said. 

All in all, Bergmann says she is very pleased with how the show turned out. She is especially grateful for the efforts of the costume shop staff.

“I almost felt bad every time I asked them to do something,” she says. “I had to remind myself that this is how it works — they are here to realize my designs. I was so blown away with the speed at which they worked. They really understood what I was going for.”