Costume Design
Knighted (Sonneteer Productions, Dances with Films LA 2026)
Director: Zachery Trent, Cinematographer: Noah Morris
In designing the costumes for Knighted, I wanted to emphasize the idea that the best friendships are based, not off of being exactly alike, but being different in a way that compliments and balances each other. The characters are all so vastly different, making each person endearing as both an individual and a group of friends. Each of the costumes are representative of how the character interacts with both themselves and the world, which is all the more important when the characters’ world gets flipped upside down!
Blink (UCI Student Directed Production, 2025)
Director: Jenni Coletta, Production Stage Manager: Eden Shook, Scenic Design: Evelyn Urusquieta, Lighting and Projection Design: David Block, Sound Design: Siyin Yan
The design ethos of Blink centered around the visual blending of two people's lives as their relationship grows more intimate, and how things change as those ties dissolve. To show this through costume, I focused on layering of clothing that could be removed, shared, and left in each other's homes.
The action of removing clothes was used to emphasize moments of vulnerability, whereas clothing was put back on as each person pulled away or acted in self-protection.
Melancholy Play (UCI Student Directed Production, 2024)
Director: Linda McDaniel, Production Stage Manager: Eden Shook, Technical Director: Colt McGuire, Scenic Design: Rojin Bolandbakht, Lighting Design: Mac McDermott, Sound Design: Elizabeth Villasenor
Early on in the design process, the director and I decided on a limited color palette for the costumes (represented by the graphic design on the first slide to the right). As a result, I played a lot with different color combinations and texture to flesh out each of the characters and the relationships they have with each other.
The show was both double cast and under sever budgetary restraints (totaling $150), resulting in a show that was entirely secondhand, which presented the exciting challenge of preserving the integrity of my designs, the vision of the director, and quality of costumes as many of the costume pieces could not be shared between actors for sizing and laundering purposes.
Gruesome Playground Injuries (UCI Student Directed Production, 2024)
Director: Samantha Sun, Production Stage Manager: Bell Hernandez, Choreographer: Paulina Lugo, Scenic Design: Yuki Xu, Lighting Design: Yongxi Zhang, Projection Design: Emma Munoz, Sound Design: Meili Milan Monk
As this production was largely centered around movement, each of the costume pieces was selected to support the dancing and moving of heavy scenic pieces done by the actors. Because the actors stay onstage for almost the entirety of the show, and thus personally responsible for each of their own costume changes, I worked extensively with the actors, director, and choreographer to incorporate the costume changes directly into the choreography.
The color pallet limited was limited mostly to black, acting as a representation of being trapped within the shared liminal space of "the playground" and any of the costume pieces that were not black, such as gray and white, represented moments in which the character wearing it was attempting to distance themselves from the shared space. The layers of the costumes also represented their openness to each other, as well as their age as the show is not linear.
Dumb Waiter (UCI Student Directed Production, 2023)
Director: Belle Flanegan, Production Stage Manager: Kat Hansell, Scenic Design: Alexis Jewel, Lighting Design: Kristin M. Goodell, Sound Design: Emmy Harmon
For the concept of this production, we wanted to have the characters seem to be suspended in time, as such the costumes were intended to seem slightly dated but not necessarily connected to any specific period in time. I wanted to place the characters, Gus and Ben, in direct contrast with each other in both color pallet and level of organization.
Gus's costume is defined by his more frantic, paranoid nature which makes him quick to anger. He is the more disorganized of the two, as such his clothes are rumpled and have been very visibly mended as opposed to replacing the shirt with a new one as a reflection of his lower standing in the dynamic within the relationship with Ben and the hitman organization. The use of purple for the patches is a nod to The Costume Designer's Handbook by Rosemary Ingham and Liz Covey, which notes the color to be associated with the death of the character wearing it.
Ben's costume is much more clinical, a representation of his colder nature and disconnect from his emotions. The hints of red in both the handkerchief and suspenders show those repressed emotions coming to the surface as tension continues to build as well as the blood on his hands as he is the one to ultimately kill Gus.
