Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 121
Photo Essay: Costume Designer Catherine Zuber
With 43 Broadway shows
glimmering on her résumé, along
with over a hundred off-Broadway
and regional productions around the
country and abroad, Catherine Zuber is,
as this edition goes to press, probably
the most active costume designer in
America. Her productions have netted
her seven Tony Awards (The Royal
Family, South Pacific, Awake and Sing,
The Light in the Piazza, and all three
parts of The Coast of Utopia) plus six
additional Tony nominations (Golden
Boy, Born Yesterday, How to Succeed
in Business Without Really Trying,
Seascape, Dinner at Eight, Twelfth
Night) and a host of other awards and
tributes.
Robert Cohen met with Zuber
in the tiny basement costume shop
of the Shoenfeld Theatre on 45th
1. Catherine Zuber shows your author some
of the research pictures she has collected
for her current design of Impressionism
in the “costume space” allocated to her
in the basement of the Broadway theatre
where the play is in technical rehearsals.
On the table below the pictures, you
can see her black-and-white rendering
of the costumes being readied for dress
rehearsal. © Robert Cohen
2. Zuber and First Costume Design Assistant
Nikki Moody discuss which of the newly
purchased costume items could best be
added to the design at this point. “We
have been working together for over a
year,” says Zuber of Moody. “She’s terrific;
just out of grad school in Boston and a
lot of fun.” © Robert Cohen
3. Going over their collection of fabric
swatches for the show, Zuber and Assistant
Designer Patrick Bevilacqua are delighted
to come up with a swatch they both like.
“Patrick and I have a great relationship,”
Zuber explains. “It’s a collaboration:
I show him a sketch and he interprets it.
And when really great assistant designers
like Patrick take it a step further, it becomes
a great collaboration!” © Robert Cohen
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