Left: Costume design for Corduroy; Center: Costume design for Lisa; Right: Costume design for the Night Watchman; © Trevor Bowen
TREVOR BOWEN, Costume Designer: Corduroy is an iconic children's story that has entertained me and many others for generations. The story is actually two journeys with the same ending.
Lisa's tale is in the real world with her discovery of Corduroy and all the challenges that come with daily life. Meanwhile Corduroy's tale is a topsy-turvy journey around the department store looking for an important part of himself, and a purpose.
To that end, it was very important that Lisa's world was full of punchy color and creative pattern and color combinations that represent her drive, creativity, and tenacity. Corduroy not only needs to be immediately recognizable to the audience, but also the actor needs a costume that allows for a full range of movement and acrobatics as he bounds around the department store. The design has some hidden tricks that allows for suspension of disbelief while staying true to Don Freeman's creation.
TIM SYMONS, Composer: When Kathryn Van Meter and I started discussing the music for Corduroy, we quickly agreed that we wanted the play to have a hip, jazzy score that didn’t feel like cheesy Saturday-morning-cartoonelectric- kids-music. In discussing our inspirations for the score, we threw out phrases like “original Seasame Street,” and “Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown music,” and discussed some jazz heroes we could look to for influence, like Oscar Peterson, Dave Brubeck, and Stanton Moore. Because the character of Corduroy does not use a lot of words to express his emotion, we decided to build a series of musical themes that could follow him on his journey, and help underscore his emotions. We’re also playing with how those themes can express similar emotions in Lisa, so that the audience can feel the connection between the two of them, even though they spend most of the play apart.
See if you can pick out what we call “Friend Theme,” “Magical Bouncing Button Theme,” and “Night Watchmen’s Detective Theme,” as they appear throughout the score! The process of creating this score has been unique, as I wrote a lot of ideas prior to the cast beginning their rehearsal, but was ultimately influenced by the physical comedy created by Kathryn and the cast. We’ve had a blast playing off of each other, and creating a score that is unique to this production and group of humans!
See if you can pick out what we call “Friend Theme,” “Magical Bouncing Button Theme,” and “Night Watchmen’s Detective Theme,” as they appear throughout the score! The process of creating this score has been unique, as I wrote a lot of ideas prior to the cast beginning their rehearsal, but was ultimately influenced by the physical comedy created by Kathryn and the cast. We’ve had a blast playing off of each other, and creating a score that is unique to this production and group of humans!
Act 1 set rendering featuring the escalator and toy department shelves © CTC
LB MORSE, Lighting Designer: It has been very fun finding ways to use lighting to tell this beautiful little story of Lisa and Corduroy's journey toward finding each other, their one true friend. One thing that excites me about the play is that there are four different worlds going on simultaneously: the world of Lisa and her mom, the world of Corduroy's fanciful and fun exploration of the store on his search for a button, the world of the Night Watchman's quest to find the “intruder,” and the world of our two clowns as they help spin and direct the narrative of the play.
To help illustrate how these worlds intersect we are giving each of them their own distinct feel through lighting: very realistic spaces for Mom and Lisa, more fanciful fun colors for Corduroy, a slightly spooky (but silly) night-time feel for the Night Watchman, and an anything-goes feel for the world of the clowns. The fun is in seeing how all of these worlds and ideas overlap, collide, and work together to tell the story of finding your best friend!
To help illustrate how these worlds intersect we are giving each of them their own distinct feel through lighting: very realistic spaces for Mom and Lisa, more fanciful fun colors for Corduroy, a slightly spooky (but silly) night-time feel for the Night Watchman, and an anything-goes feel for the world of the clowns. The fun is in seeing how all of these worlds and ideas overlap, collide, and work together to tell the story of finding your best friend!
