Taylor Busch (left) helps design costumes for the UTC Theatre Co. musical “Bright Star.” Photo by Angela Foster.
When most people think of college theater, they picture actors delivering lines, musical numbers and dramatic monologues.
Behind the scenes, however, is a long decision-making and creative process that shapes what the audience sees.
For Taylor Busch, a visiting assistant professor of costume design at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, that process begins with fabric, color and countless rereads of the script.
“I always want to be really true to the story that we’re trying to tell and the story the playwright is trying to tell,” Busch said. “We are trying to show our version of what we think their story is, and I want to always make sure that we are enforcing the storyline. Nothing feels out of place.
“I spend a lot of time reading the characters and trying to get to know their personalities. I think about who they are as people instead of a character.”
UTC Theatre Department Head Steve Ray said Busch’s focus on visual storytelling is part of what makes the designs resonate on stage.
“Taylor is very specific with her colors, which I love,” Ray said. “That’s what brings the art—when you are that specific about those three things: color, line and texture.”
Busch’s work on a recent UTC Theatre Co. production, “Bright Star,” is one example of how intricate her design choices can be.
“We were all in our beginning meetings talking about focusing on the land and telling the story of the land and the people that live in it,” Busch said. “I wanted to contribute to that somehow.”
She thought the perfect way to connect the costumes to the land would be to draw inspiration from wildflowers native to North Carolina.
“I started looking at different pictures of them, what they look like at different times of the year and started picking out my color palettes from there,” she said.
That level of detail does have some constraints, such as limited time and tight budgets. This is where the students step in, applying what they’ve learned in class to real production work.
“You can’t say, ‘I want it cheap and I want it fast, and I don’t have any people to help out,’” Ray said. “You’re not going to get that. You’re going to get cheap and poorly put together.
Thankfully, Ray said, the department has a system in place where students will take a “Performance and Production” practicum course, working 12 hours a week in various shops—including the costume shop.
“Most of them don’t come in knowing how to use a serger or a sewing machine or even how to steam a garment,” Ray said. “It’s very new to a lot of them, but they start out by basic stitching, hand stitching buttons, eventually working up to putting zippers in and cutting and draping or pattern making.
“By the time they’re seniors, if they’re really interested in costume design, they’re doing more advanced stuff in designing and building costumes.”
For the upcoming UTC Theatre Co. production, “John Proctor is the Villain,” the costumes are a bit different than what Busch is used to.
Rather than sketching and sewing period-piece wardrobes, she’s sourcing clothes specific to a 2018 high school aesthetic.
To brainstorm, she recalled her 2018 closet and asked others what theirs looked like as well. She laughed as she listed off some of the outfits: A-line dresses with kimono-style cardigans, corduroy button-up skirts, skinny jeans and choker-neck tops.
“I’ve never designed a show during a time period that I’ve been alive,” she said. “It’s been interesting and kind of hard because a lot of these clothes are just not popular anymore.”
While designing outfits for the 21st century brought its own difficulties, Busch sees the value in those challenges for the students. Even with simple garments, the process requires patience and precision.
“I think that just basic sewing skills are really good practical life skills to have,” she said. “It’s very simple to sew a button on and you can really save your clothes by fixing the hem on pants.”
Ray said that even for those who aren’t planning to pursue costume design professionally, the costume shop experience helps students build both technical and personal skills.
“Everybody needs to learn how to sew,” he said. “Your entry-level acting jobs—or what we call summer stock—you’ll usually get to act in a show or two. The third show, you will have a duty that you have to do backstage, which may be working in the costume shop.”
The job market for designers, Ray added, is much stronger than other theater-related careers such as acting—where work can be sporadic and competitive.
“The thing about designers and technicians is they get hired immediately,” Ray said. “Most of them get full rides to graduate programs and after graduate school, they’re constantly in demand for the rest of their lives.”
For Busch’s students, the learning process begins in the UTC costume shop.
“The biggest takeaway is that you need a lot of patience to work with clothes and I don’t think a lot of students know that,” Busch said. “Whenever they come in here, they think, ‘Oh, the first time I try it, it’ll work out.’ But one of my mentors in undergraduate school would say, ‘You sew what you rip.’”
A production making its Broadway debut this spring is also set to hit the UTC Fine Arts Center’s Dorothy Hackett Ward Theatre stage.
The UTC Theatre Co. continues its 2024-2025 season with its production of “John Proctor is the Villain,” written by playwright Kimberly Belflower. Performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. from Tuesday, April 8, through Saturday, April 12—with a 2 p.m. matinee performance on April 12.
Tickets can be purchased online by clicking here and through the UTC Box Office—in person or by phone (423-425-1423). Tickets are $20 for general admission and $15 for students (with proof of student ID) and seniors.
The UTC Fine Arts Center is located at the intersection of Dr. Roland Carter Street (formerly known as Vine Street) and Palmetto Street on the UTC campus.
“John Proctor is the Villain” centers on a group of modern-day high school students in rural Georgia who—while studying Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”—navigate young love, sex ed and a few school scandals.
Developed with support from the Farm Theater’s College Collaboration Project, the play was designed with undergraduate productions in mind. As a result, it was already being staged on university campuses before making its way to professional theaters.
After premiering at the Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 2022, the contemporary stage play gave its first preview at Broadway’s Booth Theatre on March 20. The show’s opening night is scheduled for April 14.
Productions of the play have received critical acclaim, earning Best Ensemble and Outstanding Production of a Play at the 2023 Helen Hayes Awards as well as Best Ensemble and Outstanding Play at the 2024 Elliot Norton Awards.
“This play followed an unusual path to Broadway,” Ray said. “Typically, productions start in New York and then make their way to regional theaters and universities, but ‘John Proctor is the Villain’ built its reputation in regional theaters.
“It’s rare that we get the chance to stage a play that is still running on Broadway. We secured the rights before it made its move to New York—and now we have the exciting opportunity to bring it to Chattanooga audiences while it’s still making waves in the theater world.”
The UTC Theatre Co. production is directed by Associate Professor Anne Swedberg, coordinator of UTC’s acting concentration.
“I’ve always thought it was so cool that the play actually started its journey at the university and college level,” Swedberg said. “As a script that was written to be of interest to undergraduate theatre departments, ‘John Proctor is the Villain’ contains great roles for undergraduate theatre students. Seven of the nine characters in the play are high school juniors—which puts them within the age range of the UTC theatre students who are portraying them.
“I’ve relied heavily on the minds and memories of the members of the cast, stage management team and assistant directors for their knowledge of ‘all things high school in 2018,’ including the music that the teenagers in the play are listening to.”
Added Ray, “Playwright Kimberly Belflower has crafted an incredibly thoughtful, nuanced piece that takes on a difficult subject with both artistry and depth. The characters are layered and real and the storytelling is compelling from start to finish.”
The cast is comprised of the following UTC students (academic year/major/hometown):
- Matthew Patrick (junior/accounting/Chattanooga)
- Kaylee Payne (freshman/theatre: acting/Arlington, Tennessee)
- Ellen Rich (junior/theatre: theatre education/Hixson, Tennessee)
- Olis Martinez (junior/theatre: acting/Chattanooga)
- Lilly Reggio (freshman/theatre: acting/Knoxville, Tennessee)
- Caton Taylor (senior/theatre: acting/Murfreesboro, Tennessee)
- Maislynne Payne (junior/theatre: theatre education/Jackson, Tennessee)
- Cameron Branch (junior/theatre: acting/Waynesboro, Tennessee)
- Eli Nelson (sophomore/theatre/Ringgold, Georgia)
The “John Proctor is the Villain” production crew includes the following UTC students:
- Conard Belitz—stage manager and assistant technical director (junior/theatre: design and technology; management/Kingston, Tennessee)
- Karis Richardson—assistant stage manager (freshman/theatre: theatre education/Gallatin, Tennessee)
- Eric Lindley—assistant stage manager (sophomore/theatre: design and technology/Knoxville, Tennessee)
- Lyric Boals—assistant director (sophomore/theatre: design and technology/Oakfield, Tennessee)
- Katie Forrester—assistant director/senior/theatre: acting/Rocky Face, Georgia)
Other members of the production crew include Busch (costume designer), Emma Hoffbauer (scenic designer and production manager) and Alex Miller-Long (lighting designer and technical director).
Swedberg said the performances of ‘John Proctor is the Villain’ will be dedicated to Professor Gaye Jeffers, who passed away on March 5.
“My wonderful colleague Gaye Jeffers was an early reader of ‘John Proctor is the Villain,’” Swedberg said. “As a playwright and dramaturg, Gaye was a non-stop reader of new material; she mentioned the play several years ago and was the first person to bring the script to the department.
“There’s a moment at the end of our production that is a tribute to Gaye’s direction of a play called ‘Silent Sky.’ Gaye also would have directed this show had she been able to do so.”
UTC Theatre Co. costume design photo gallery by Angela Foster
