By Gabrielle Young, Marketing Intern
For Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma’s 60th Anniversary Season, we are starting a #MeetTheTeamMonday series for our summer season. We begin this series with Jeffrey Meek, Lyric’s resident costume designer, who is currently costuming THE SOUND OF MUSIC. As a highly respected and seasoned costume designer, we wanted to dive into his influences and the process of designing the costumes for this classic musical.
What types of research did you do for THE SOUND OF MUSIC and what were your influences?
THE SOUND OF MUSIC has been a favorite, and I always want to pay homage to the original film because that is what people know and love. I would hate to change the feeling that the original film did. I like to work on periods of the 1940s. In this show, there are uniforms, lots and lots of nuns, and we got to study all types of religious vestments and period wear of the 1940s/World War II. It’s exciting.
What was your process in designing the costumes for THE SOUND OF MUSIC?
We started a long time ago. We checked with the set designer on what the set design would be; we always want the picture to be something that’s cohesive with lighting and set and props. So, after seeing the set design, we came up with a color palette and designs and what would look good on the actors. We put that together with historical research and came up with the costumes.
As a classic show that has had many iterations, did you make any drastically different decisions with costuming that strayed from tradition?
We didn’t do anything out of the norm with this one. Again, we are telling a story that everyone loves, and it is not our goal, for this show, to go off the rails. We wanted to give them a good Rodgers and Hammerstein show that they can appreciate and feel comfortable with. We did switch the color palette from our last production of this to a much more cool, soft, and pastel color palette. Last time, we did a little more earthy and ethnic feeling, but this one is new and fresh and different.
Tell us about your favorite costume in THE SOUND OF MUSIC.
Obviously, I have to love nuns for this one; it is fun to do anything there are 64 of. I like the evening wear; it is something new and different. It shows up for one very quick scene, and we get to do some nice dresses and tuxedos. The kids’ clothes are something we don’t do tons of here at the Lyric Theatre Costume Shop, and there are a lot of them in this show. Every child wears 10 costumes a piece. When you multiply that by the number of kids in the von Trapp family, that’s a lot of clothes. So, it’s fun sometimes to do little versions of big clothes.
What was challenging about the costuming for THE SOUND OF MUSIC?
I think the biggest challenge was the sheer volume of clothes in the show. It seems like a small show, but once you get all the children, all the nuns, and all of the principals and everything they have to wear, there are a lot of clothes to be made, to be altered, and to be fit. So, a big show sometimes looks big and brassy, and since this one is a little more realistic in make, it may seem like a small show but will sneak up and grab you.
Any last words to readers?
It’s been so much fun working on THE SOUND OF MUSIC, so come and enjoy the pretty dresses and have a great night at the theatre!
