Q&A: NU Dolphin Show Costume Designers Share Sneak Peeks For "Cinderella"

Claudia Johnson/STITCH Magazine

The Dolphin Show, the largest student-produced musical in the United States, takes place on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. This year, students will be performing Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. STITCH sat down with costume designer Ezra Osburn and costume coordinator Olivia Czyz behind the scenes at Cahn Auditorium for a conversation about their process for this year’s production. 

STITCH: How did you become interested in costume design? 

Osburn: I value the importance of clothing because it does tell a lot about a person, so I wanted to help share that story. 

Czyz: I've always been a craftier person. A few years ago, I learned how to sew over the summer, and it kind of kicked off from there. I really love being able to take fabric, a pattern, and an idea you have in your head to life and put it on someone. 

STITCH: How do you design and source all of the costumes? 

Osburn: We spend a lot of time working with the characters and talking with the directors and other designers to come up with the final designs, which end up being like a culmination of what I want, what I think we can do and then melding it with all the other designs because that's important to me. I like it when things are cohesive, especially in theater. 

Czyz: We started with going to different rental locations and [asking], ‘Okay, what do they have? What can we work with? What do we like?’ Then working from there and decide what we need to sew and build, and what we have the money and time for. Would it be cool to sew every single costume in the show? Absolutely. Do we have the time for that? Absolutely not. We also did a lot of online and secondhand shopping for base clothes to alter and build off of, which has helped save time and money.

STITCH: What challenges did you face while working on Cinderella? 

Czyz: One of the biggest challenges for me was just the scale of the cast. We have a 24-person cast. The thing about this show is that every ensemble member has at least three costumes and up to five costumes. So there [are] probably almost 100 costumes in the show that we've had to track and make sure we have everything and make sure things fit people. There's just so much fabric in the space at any given time that has to be managed. 

STITCH: What are your favorite costumes in the show? 

Czyz: Mine is the Fairy Godmother's costume because I took it on as a personal challenge, in that I was pretty much building the whole thing from scratch. So it was an awesome sewing and drafting challenge for me. The entire coat and a lot of the skirts I drafted by hand. 

STITCH: Do you have a favorite part of the show? 

Osburn: I like all the parts where the magic is coming to life. For us, it's the transformations. There are puppets, crazy light things and crazy set things. Having a fantastical show like this [is] fun to see those different parts happen and watch all our peers make them happen. 

Czyz: For me, it's the ball. I feel like it's the obvious choice, but it's just cool. I feel like all the people on stage and all the dancing and how everything's coming together is just so iconic. It's Cinderella. There's going to be a ball. What we're doing with it is cool. 

STITCH: No spoilers, but what should audience members expect? 

Osburn: It's a good time. We're here to enjoy theater, just existing and us all being in the space together and making something that's a little bit silly and a little bit magical. If you're feeling sad, come see it. Do you want to feel happier and you're already happy? You should come to see it. 
Czyz: It's such a joyful show, you know? I feel like theater can sometimes be about real-life things that are very serious and grounding. This show is an opportunity to get lost in a world of magic and whimsy and just have fun.