College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Long process

ISU Theatre's Annaliese Baker's costume designs selected for world showcase.
Annaliese Baker says there is a misconception about her profession.

Make that a large misconception.

"People think that all I do is shop or that somehow the costumes in a show just appear," the assistant professor of music and ISU Theatre faculty member said.

Baker is the costume designer for ISU Theatre and spends most of her time in a windowless office in the basement of Fisher Theater working on the next ISU Theatre production. Going to a clothing store and selecting costumes off the rack isn't in her job description.

Instead Baker will read a play that she has to design the costumes for. And read it. And read it.

"The text is the foundation on which you build the framework of the costumes," she said. "You have to become extremely familiar with each of the characters before you can start your design work. That's an important first step."

Then she will research the era that production is set in before she actually starts designing and then creating the costumes for the show.

"You can go to a store and buy costumes for a play set in modern times," she said. "But there’s no store that specializes in clothing from the 1700 or 1800s.

"No matter what era a costume is created for, a good theatrical design is one that is unnoticed."

Baker was recently honored for her designs from one such show. She has been chosen to exhibit her costume designs at the World Stage Design 2005 in Toronto next spring.

Baker's 11 costume designs for the play "An Experiment with an Air Pump" were among 55 designs selected for the international competition out of 244 eligible. She is one of only 15 U.S. designers chosen.

"I was thrilled to be reviewed by some of the top international designers and be included in the top 20 percent of those submitting," she said. "It'such an honor because I really just take pleasure in my work."

The World Stage Exhibit 2005 will take place next March and the top three costume designs will be recognized.

Her work on "An Experiment with an Air Pump," completed while she was on the faculty at the University of Central Arkansas, was a challenge on two different levels. First the Arkansas production was believed to be the U.S. premiere of the play.

The second dealt with the play’s plot which takes place in the same house on New Year's Eve - only 200 years apart - first in 1799 and later in 1999. Characters from each time period are their era’s scientists trying to unlock secrets of the human body in order to find the meaning of life.

Surprisingly Baker says it is much more difficult to design for present-day shows than period pieces.

"With modern clothes each audience member brings their own biases to the show," she said, "plus there is not delineation between the classes like there was in the 1700 or 1800s. It's difficult to say things about a character with their costumes in modern-day shows.

"The costumes I designed for 1799 were actually more fun. You can say a lot more about the characters and a lot easier than you can in present-day."