At HTY, clothes do make the man
By Noelle Chun
Advertiser Staff Writer
Push into the stuffy warehouse off Lagoon Drive, climb a flight of stairs, and move through the fluorescent-lit office. Inside a box near one of the desks you uncover a set of drawings, textured with strokes from colored pencils and black pen.
From the book by Pat Hall; script by Lee Cataluna, music by Wade Cambern. World premiere: On an exodus from a Kona coffee plantation, four over-the-hill animals join together to salvage their dignity and become friends and ultimately heroes. 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 25, Oct. 2, Oct. 9 at Leeward Community College; recommended for 4 and older Tickets are $16 general, and $8 for youths (18 and younger) and seniors (over 60). Active duty, retired or military dependents with valid ID can buy one ticket, and get one ticket of equal or lesser value free. 839-9885, www.htyweb.org.
The drawings are the costume renderings of Sandra Payne, a costume assistant who recently joined the Honolulu Theatre for Youth. The "renderings," as the drawings are called, serve as the bridge between Payne's vision of what the costumes should look like and what they become.
'The Kona-town Musicians'
But Payne's renderings go beyond the basics necessary to describe the designs. The expressive faces and the textures created with her pencils and black pen make the picture look appropriate for an illustrated children's book. Even if kept from public display, the renderings survive as their own art, separate from the performance and life size costumes.
Lee Cataluna's new play, "Kona-Town Musicians," is Payne's first production with HTY. She joined at the end of this summer after her stint with Mainstate Music Theater. Her training in studio art, with an emphasis on painting and drawing gives her a background for the job.
"I wanted to be a children's book illustrator when I was little," Payne said. But while working on her bachelors in studio art at Texas Tech University, Payne had some opportunities to work on costume design for theater.
"These were very rich and exciting experiences," she said. "I knew that I wanted a career in costuming. The most exciting part has got to be seeing (the costume) go from a two-dimensional thing on paper to a real thing an actor relates to. It's also challenging. You draw these things and wonder how you'll make it a reality."
Costume design seemed to marry Payne's passion for drawing with an early interest in sewing. Clothes, for her, are a way to understand people.
"I like to study clothes on people," she said. "It's everything. It's their hairstyle, the way they might roll their pants up, the length of their shirt, the kind of shoes."
Payne does draw on her own time, but she enjoys her job because it allows her to think in a more community-minded setting, and work with others toward a common goal.
"This job has been amazing. I can't tell you how fabulous it is to have a full time job with a regular paycheck to get to do what you love."
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Junior Tesoro plays a surfer.
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Stephanie Kuroda plays a rooster.
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| Left, Daryl Bonilla plays a dog. Right, Elizabeth Wolfe is a cat.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser Illustrations by Sandra Payne |
