Adios was a whirlwind of paint, wood glue, a found objects. It was built in three weeks for a cast of eight, with a total eighteen looks. Each individual garment was treated in some way. There was a common distressing that happened on all the mens pant legs and creeped up their coats - a sign of their otherworldly qualities and their age, fading with Carlota’s memory. Her specific distressing was those of time, eating away showing her skeleton beneath.
REVIEWS:
The San Jose Stage | APRIL 3 - 28, 2019
“Rich’s Carlota has the severe eyes and brow of a silent film star, and she’s clad in a cobwebbed gown reminiscent of Miss Havisham in “Great Expectations.” Madeline Berger did the costumes, many of which suggest years of attic neglect, the pathetic nostalgia of trying to live in a decayed past” - Datebook, SF Chronicle
“Even in the more naturalistic flashback scenes, everyone has dark ghoulish makeup around the eyes and stained and tattered finery, in Madeline Berger’s costumes, as if everyone had crawled out of a grave to be here.” - Mercury News
“…The result is both instructive and fun to watch, adding much to the historical and emotional context of the story. Likewise, the costumes of Madeline Berger bring authenticity to the times and regions represented and provide their own contributions to the farcical aspects the playwright and director seem to have desired.” - Talkin Broadway
“The dark costumes of Madeline Berger bring a ghostly effect to each actors look as their costumes seem to disappear or fall into dead ashes. The gowns for Carlota are cemetery white and flowing with signs of death and madness. I loved the look of the cast. President Lincoln drops by in this wonderful endless top hat that is a subtext to his assassination. Berger’s ghost punk look is topped off by marvelous wig designer Sharon Ridge.” - VMedia
Other reviews: Theatrius
About the Play:
Narrated by Empress Carlota in Belgium 1927 - 60 years have passed since the death of her beloved Maximillian before a firing squad in Mexico. Revisiting the rise and fall of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico invoking her role as Empress, she’s haunted by her memories, holding royal court entertaining several distinguished ghosts, including; Maximilian, Napoleon III, Benito Juarez and Abraham Lincoln. Carlota questions her survival: WHY has she lived so long without a husband, children, or relatives that no trace of her world remains? Carlota’s real dilemma pivots on her guilt and self-doubt on her abandonment of Maximilian and their unfinished love story.
Allison F. Rich as "Carlota," Will Springhorn Jr. as "Maximilian/Lincoln," Martin Rojas Dietrich as "Napoleon III/Archbishop/Don Felipe/Miramon," Edward Hightower as "Bazaine/Riedel," Estrella Ezparza-Johnson as "Eugenie/Manuela," Jessica Osegueda as "Conchita/Pepita/Margarita,"Sean Okuniewicz as "Van der Smissen/Franz Josef" and Noé Yaocoatl as "Sedano/Benito Juarez/Mejia."
The creative team includes Jack D. Myles (Production Stage Manager), Michael Palumbo (Scenic Designer/Lighting Designer), Madeline Berger (Costume Designer), Garland Thompson Jr. (Projections Designer), Dante Carballo (Projections Consultant), Steve Schoenbeck (Sound Designer), Caitlin Elizabeth and Yvonne Vo (Props Leads), Keith Pinto (Choreographer) and Robert Pickering (Master Carpenter).
Bouncing between coasts, designing multiple pieces at once - she associated designed with Lara De Brujin.
Salomé by Oscar Wilde
in a new English translation by director James Rutherford
with Patrick Cann, Ross Cowan, Jon Froehlich, Catherine Gasta, Charise Greene, Julia Gu, Brough Hansen, Jonathan Harris, Marty Keiser,
Lizzie King-Hall, Jamie Lowenstein, Stephanie Orta-Vázquez, Louie Pearlman, Rava Raab, Alexander Reed, Justin Reinsilber, Laura Butler Rivera,
Anthony Simone, Lisa Tharps, Rudi Utter, Feathers Wise and Jing Xu
Choreography Jess Goldschmidt • Projection Wladimiro Woyno • Costumes Lara de Bruijn • Scenery Oona Curley
Lighting Kate McGee • Sound Michael Costagliola • Associate Director Dan Rogers • Stage Management Isaac VanCuren
Scenic Associate Santiago Orjuela Laverde • Projection Associate Lacey Erb • Sound Associate Sinan Zafar • Costume Associate Madeline Berger
Technical Direction Rudi Utter • Production Anna Brenner, Marty Keiser • Photography Eileen Meny
Reviews:
SF Playhouse | OCT 10 - NOV 3
Graveyard Shift By Korde Arrington Tuttle
Directed by Melissa Crespo
Presented at The Creativity Theater
When Janelle relocates to Texas for the opportunity of a lifetime, she and her partner, Kane, are reminded that the consequences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time can be horrific. For three county police officers, how might those same consequences manifest themselves along racialized and gendered lines? graveyard shift is a love story about collision, opposing ideologies, interests, truth, and how the characters in this play make sense of them. Or don’t.
Reviews:
SF Playhouse | AUG 8 - SEPT 1
WASHED UP ON THE POTOMAC
Written by Lynn Rosen
Directed by José Zayas
Presented at The Custom Made Theatre
Order is the name of the game in this D.C. proofreading office, but everything is a bit off today. It’s ninety degrees in October, a costly mistake has been made on an important account, and someone is going to get fired. As three proofreaders ponder their futures, they become haunted and inspired by memories of a coworker whose body may have washed up on the banks of the Potomac today. Who will be the next to go? Or are they already gone?
Reviews:
EXTINCT ANIMALS | Meraki, UCSB, 2015
Freedom within boundaries. Exploring the limitations of space and sound - what is really there and what is the imagination. Each piece chosen and hand constructed to complete the vision of the choreographer.
THE BREEDERS | Free Fall, UCSB, 2017
The dystopian world of The Breeders tries to diminish sexualization and also promote a child like sensibility of its inhabitants - even when they are over the age of 18. Children school uniforms from the early 19th and 20th century were the biggest sources of inspiration. Adding in new and unusual materials and shapes to make the traditional children's uniform into a more futurist and off putting look. Having uniformity even in their underwear further informs the control the society has.
BAR[R]ED | Double Exposure, UCSB, 2016
Constructed from parts (160 pieces in total) - the dance is choreographed to show the deconstruction of not only the dancers but their clothes. As they discover that even their clothes can't show their true identities and it is only in the naked state, after we have shed our layers - can we truly see our identity.
