A new exhibit at the McNay Art Museum reveals the important role of costumes and design in a stage production's acting and set.
McNay Art Museum Director William Chiego introduces us to their new exhibition, Onstage! Costume Design and the Theatre, which runs now through Jan. 5, 2014.
"Onstage is a wonderful demonstration of some of the leading costume designers that are represented in the Tobin collection, and it shows how costume design was translated into the actual work for the stage," Chiego said.
When deciding how to display the collection's wide swath of lavish, detailed period costumes, Tobin Theatre Arts Curator Jody Blake chose an unusual tack for this project.
"So this time I decided to take people in through the back door, the stage door," she said. "The entry has brick, the kind of signage you would have entering backstage--authorized visitors only. And throughout the exhibition it really looks like you're a privileged visitor backstage.
The exhibition has a decidedly behind-the-scenes feel. From original sketches, all the way to the finished costumes.
It gives people a real sense of how those drawings, those sketches are translated into the actual work.
- Learn more about the exhibition at: www.mcnayart.org