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Curtain Call
New exhibit at Library for the Performing Arts devoted to 100 years of female designers
Anna Louizos’ 2008 Tony-nominated set design for In the Heights
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You will be hard pressed to find a costume designer taking a bow, a set designer with their headshot in the playbill, or a lighting designer on the advertising posters and billboards. Yet theatergoers are aware that legions of talented minds share in the creative process of a production. However, what lingers under the radar is how many women were influential in performance history.
Curtain Call: Celebrating a Century of Women Designing for Live Performance, an exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, displays the works of female set, costume, and lighting designers from the turn of the century to present day. Co-curated by Barbara Cohen-Stratyner and Carrie Robbins, the exhibit explores the significance of female contributions to dance, theater and performance art.
“American visual culture does come from live performance, and live performance is designed by women,” says Barbara Cohen-Stratyner of the advancements made by these designers. The drawings of costumes beginning at the turn of the century, set models, photographs, and actual costumes from dance and theater performances just scratch the surface of the performance time capsule in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery.
Television screens rotate a series of dance/theater performances and interviews of top designers, like Holly Hines (costume director for New York City Ballet), and Jennifer Tipton (lighting designer). Photographs are sprawled across the walls with shots of performances like Billy the Kid by Jean Rosenthal, masks, props, and drawings of costume designs from the early 1900s.
“It was surprising how few contemporary designers knew anything about the past,” says Cohen-Stratyner of the exhibit’s opening. “They were shocked and totally blown away by the designs from the turn of the century.”
There were challenges in finding some of the pieces for the exhibit, and despite the library’s significant resources, the three dimensional materials were difficult to locate. The costumes from early modern dance were lent by companies like Martha Graham and José Limón.
Not only an attractive exhibit, there is certainly a deeper message here. Cohen-Stratyner hopes that visitors will better understand live performance and the collaboration involved. “We’re also hoping that kids and young adults who think all they can do with drawing is fashion or comics [will now] think seriously about theater and performance as careers.”
Curtain Call will be at The NYPL for the Performing Arts November 17th, 2008 through May 2nd, 2009 in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery. Exhibit Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 11 to 6, Monday and Thursday 12 to 8, and Saturday 10 to 6.