Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Ribbons of brocade lined with baroque embroidery flashed across the stage of Carnegie Mellon's Philip Chosky Theater in 18th-century luxury. Designer Albulena Borovci watched from the wings as her watercolor sketches twirled to life in CMU's adaptation of the romantic comedy, "The Rivals."
Although it has been several months since the October premiere of the show, Ms. Borovci, 24, a third-year graduate student studying costume design at CMU, recently received acclaim for her work when she was awarded the Zelma Weisfeld Costume Design Award by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology.
6 comments:
I enjoy reading about our students on the green page. Of course I know that CMU produces quality artists but it's always great to gain reassurance from published sites. Reading about this also reminded me of how much research goes into costume design, and any other work of theatre, really. I knew there was research to be done on garments but it was good to have a reminder about all the details like shoes and wigs too and how much attention those articles also need. I enjoyed reading abut Abulena had to say about different definitions of beauty from a period. I like the idea of getting to interpret a time period and place your own ideas of aesthetic and beauty into an accurate time frame.
I, like Jacquelyn, love reading about CMU students on this page. I especially love when they are current like Abulena. Her work for The Rivals was stunning and I am so pleased that she won this design award. She deserves it! I ask love how true and accurate these costumes were and how much work went into making them the right costumes for the show. I commend Abulena for an amazing job on this production and wish her all of the luck in the world in future endeavors.
This is so exciting. Abulena's work for The Rivals was absolutely stunning and I think she really deserves this. It's very exciting to see incredibly hard work paying off and I'm so happy for her. Like Jacquelyn, I always forget just how much research goes into designing a costume, especially a period one. To think of how much she had to do to design that entire show is absolutely mind blowing. I really like what Abulena said about being very detail oriented; it's true that the audience can't see the level of detail but the actors can and the detail in their clothing can really help form a character. Rivals was headed into tech while I was in my costumes mini, and I remember working on it and helping Abulena sort through drawers upon drawers to find the perfect buttons. Like I said, this is so exiting and I feel so lucky to have been able to work under such a talented designer.
This award was totally warranted. I might be a bit jaded because I worked on rivals crew but every night I was absolutely enthralled with the costumes and for me that was the most interesting part of the whole production. I remember seeing the costumes for the first time and seeing how differently the actors reacted once in them. You could tell that the costumes brought life back to there characters and made them even more excited to start the show. Back stage I watched how the costumes were extensions of the characters and even helps form the characters further. It was truly stunning
I think that is amazing that she won and it was totally warranted. The designs for "The Rivals" were amazing and then seeing them come to life was even more amazing. The characters truly were brought to life as Alex said the costumes looked completely like the period and it was almost like going back in time. I have never seen costumes work so well except maybe for a production of "My Fair Lady". I think period pieces almost seem more real than contemporary pieces for some reason.
I think it's wonderful to see our students, and even more so the people that I personally have worked with in the news, and on this page. I remember working on the rivals costumes seeing everything being put together. The process was mesmerizing, even as I was helping (a little) with it. And then seeing them on stage was even more fantastic. They were beautiful and any people, drama or otherwise, said that they were undeniably the best parts of the show! And what Albulena said about the static set and the dynamic costumes is so true. Congrats, Albulena!
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