Katherine Garlick costumes "The Crucible" as MFA thesis production
By Tom Robson
When audiences think of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, minds inevitably leap to traditional Puritan attire. As costume designer Katherine Garlick puts it, "It tends to look an awful lot like a Thanksgiving Day pageant." When approaching Crucible as her MFA thesis production, Katherine strove to avoid such clichés. "When [director] Fontaine [Syer] and I met and discussed the play, we did not want to make Crucible a history lesson, because it's not," she says. "One of the things we're trying to do with the costumes -- we don't want to discard the Puritan roots of the play -- is taking Puritan elements, and 1954 McCarthy-era elements, and modern elements to create the silhouette."
The repressed and often secretive nature of both the Puritan and Red Scare times influence Katherine's approach to costuming The Crucible. "With both the 1950s and the Puritans you're going to get a lot of images of conformity and restraint. One of the things you're going to find is a lot of concealment and structure in the clothing, as opposed to clothing that allows for more self-expression." In this way, the designer brings the essence of the play into a new physical world, putting her own twist on a recognizable period.
When asked why she sought out The Crucible to be her thesis, Katherine immediately mentions the appeal of working with director Syer: "I got to work with Fontaine, and Fontaine's amazing. She's a director that I really highly respect, and I feel privileged to work with her." Beyond that, it was the timeless and relevant material found in the script that attracted her to the material. She says, "This is a play about very real, very vital, very pressing issues."
Of course, Katherine's last design was the Brown County Playhouse production of The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged). When asked about the differences between the two productions and the two designs, she says, "It's really hard to get further—" and then dissolves into giggles. Her other Bloomington designs showcase her range. From the retro seventies look of Happy Birthday, Wanda June to the dual-period style of Arcadia, Katherine has been adept at finding the correct visual approach to any play.
Looking into the future, she hopes to return to her native Pennsylvania, moving a bit further east to Philadelphia, where she hopes to work as a freelance designer and "not starve."
