Holly Poe Durbin is the head of Costume Design studies at the University of California, Irvine, as well as a member of URTA’s National Board.  Today, she offers some advice to those seeking a MFA in theatre design, as well as sharing some thoughts on her own career as a professional designer.

Holly, can you tell us about some of the current projects you are working on?

As many designers do, I am juggling three projects at once. I’ve just opened a production titled Shipwrecked at the Cincinnati Playhouse, and I am preparing a production of Death of a Salesman, which will be the 50th season opener for the South Coast Repertory. At the same time, I’m gearing up to do a special event–the annual gala fundraiser for the Los Angeles Shakespeare Center, featuring Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson. Each year they do a special staged reading of one of the comedies with musical accompaniment. This year the musical guest will be Sir Paul McCartney.

Most MFA actor training programs are grounded in the theater, but also address the idiosyncrasies of acting for the camera through various classes, projects, or workshops.  How do you meet that same need with MFA designers?  Do you address “designing for the camera”?

We are located in the Los Angeles metro area so our program does address designing costumes and scenery for two major forms of employment on the West Coast: designing for themed entertainment, and for the screen. Our designers work with the cinematographers and directors at several renowned film schools to design student films and independent films for the festival circuit.

Do you tend to accept MFA design students fresh out of undergrad, or do you look for more seasoned designers? Perhaps some mix of the two?  What makes someone a good candidate for graduate school?

We accept a mixture of students directly out of undergraduate school and those who have worked a year or more before returning for intensive study in design. The key that we look for is experiences outside of the student’s home theatre department, such as internship, summer stock or festivals, community based theatre, outreach performing arts companies or storefront theaters.

UCIrvine accepts candidates into one of the design specialties: scenery, costume, lighting, sound. It is vital that a student have enough experience in their area so they are ready to intensively focus. There are a number of very good programs that emphasize more than one area. Understanding this distinction between graduate programs will help a potential candidate sort through what can appear to be a dizzying array of options.

When coming into a new design project, where do you begin? Do you have a ‘method’ or is each process completely different?  From where do you draw inspiration?

Oh how I wish there were a magic formula I could just plug a script into and out comes a design! Each process must be different to reflect the team I’m working with and the specific show.

But no matter what, it’s essential to over prepare for every project. You just never know what you’re going to need. Learn everything in the world about the world of the show. For instance, in designing Death of a Salesman, I had to think long and hard about two characters who appear in the Act 2 restaurant scene–the two ladies Hap and Biff Loman pick up. We are given the exact location of the restaurant in the dialogue– just off Times Square. One lady is at a table, and she calls a friend to join them. Why is Miss Forsyth alone at a table off Times Square, in a time when ladies didn’t generally dine alone? And how did her friend Letta get there so fast when called? They couldn’t be hookers, because a decent restaurant wouldn’t allow the trade in their dining room. And Letta mentions having jury duty in the morning—she has no criminal record, then. Years ago I’d read a fascinating book about Gypsy Rose Lee and I suddenly remembered Times Square had been surrounded by burlesque houses in the late 1940s & 1950s. These gals probably just finished the day shift. So I did more research, and I decided Miss Forsyth was meeting a married lover in this restaurant and he’d stood her up. She decides to go off with the Loman brothers out of revenge. Figuring all this out helped me to decide what the two women were wearing and how they would move and behave so I can tell a story with the actors. [for a fascinating glimpse into Holly’s research for this project, check out her Pinterest board for Death of a Salesman here.]

How has your own training served to shape your career?

Everyone has a different story in this business. I was already in the design union when I decided to return to graduate school. So I did it backwards.

My work experience taught me the intangible methodology that just cannot be learned in a class room- how to build costumes in professional shops, how to behave with different kinds of producers, directors and actors. How to implement complex projects, how to produce quality work vs amateurish work, how to really fit costumes well. How to lead creative teams so we meet forbidding deadlines regardless of challenges encountered every day!

But I also discovered that when you’re working all the time, you don’t have much time to invest in yourself,  the time to grow as an artist. Eventually I took that time; I stepped away from work to nourish the essential foundations of design. I’m still working on those, but I have a much stronger foundation and much more confidence.

Can you offer any advice to prospective MFA designers who might be preparing their portfolios and presentations for the URTA interviews right now?

I can suggest four essential things: good attitude, experience in theater or film outside of school, a love for narrative and visual storytelling and demonstrating that you can really SEE form, color, shape and proportion. To excel in our business you have to have a strong work ethic with a great deal of initiative. You have to be open to change, be a good problem solver and be willing to push petty concerns aside for the sake of the project. You must be willing to try new things for the first time while under time pressures. You have to be able to admit failures when they occur and move forward with a laugh. So many people decide to be bitter or jaded or scared —that will severely limit your career and worse, shorten your life. Of course, each area of design will have technical elements to master, but those can be taught; the four things I mentioned cannot be.

How to put that into a portfolio? I like to see examples of improvement—such as work in art classes, along with your show work. That is one reason why we put such emphasis on figure drawing–it takes a lifetime to master. If you can demonstrate that you see and understand line quality, and discuss improvement in something every time you do it, then I think you have what it takes. I also like to see what makes you different from every other candidate.

Holly Poe Durbin is a member of the URTA board, and she heads Costume Design studies for the University of California, Irvine.  She is currently designing Death of a Salesman for the South Coast Repertory.  She recently designed Three Days of Rain for SCR .  Past projects include Chekhov’s The Wood Demon on London’s West End, the UK tour of Miss Evers’ Boys and the world tour of a new opera, Don Juan Flamenco, premiering at the Flamenco Biennale in Seville.   Recent work includes Shipwrecked for the Cincinnati Playhouse, Opus for the Portland Center Stage and an upcoming encore production for the St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing starring Helen Hunt, Tom Irwin and Lyle Lovett; and Top Secret for the New York Theater Workshop, featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Ms. Durbin has designed costumes for regional theaters such as the Mark Taper Forum, Huntington Theatre in Boston, Pasadena Playhouse, Missouri Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe in San Diego and Geffen Playhouse. Themed entertainment designs include Motion Picture Madness starring Steven Spielberg, the original Gateway attraction Universal Studios Japan and Legend of the Ice Princess in San Diego.  Independent film work includes the Emmy Award winning historical docu-drama Coronado: Building the Dream.  You can follow her on pomo2k.wordpress.com.