null null Home
null
null null What's New
null
null
null
null
Working in the Theatre
null
In The Wings
null
Downstage Center
null
Career Guides
null
Play That Changed My Life
null
The Wing Blog
null
null
SDCF Masters of the Stage
null
TBL This Is Broadway
null
null
null
null
null
SpringboardNYC
null
Theatre Intern Group
null
Theatre Company Grants
null
Jonathan Larson ® Grants
null
Hewes Design Awards
null
Tony Awards
null
null
null
null
Support ATW
null
About ATW
null
Photo Gallery
null
Contact Us
null
null
null Theatre References
null
null
null
Newsletter
null
Join Our Email List
null

Downstage Center
Go in-depth with the leading artists and professionals working on stage today when you go Downstage Center. Downstage Center is the American Theatre Wing's acclaimed weekly theatrical interview program that spotlights the creative talents on Broadway, Off-Broadway, across the country and around the world, with in-depth conversations that simply can't be found anywhere else. Now in its fifth year, Downstage Center, produced in association with CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, has been featured by the Associated Press and Slate.com as the place to go for theatrical talk. New editions will be available every Monday from this website, where you can listen online, download the programs or subscribe to the podcast.

Susan Hilferty
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Download Audio (mp3)

With:
Susan Hilferty

With her Tony-winning costume designs for the hit musical Wicked virtually circling the globe, costume designer Susan Hilferty describes the detailed process by which the show's creative team conceived their own vision of Oz, and the level of work required to execute the show's distinctive costumes. She also talks about her initial interest in both fine art and scenic design, even as she worked in costume shops as an artisan; the lucky break that got her professional design credits while still an undergraduate; her decision to go to the Yale School of Drama after several years of working in New York and how that led to her 30-year collaboration with South African playwright Athol Fugard; her quick takes on the varying directorial styles of her most frequent collaborators, including James Lapine, Des McAnuff, Carole Rothman, Robert Woodruff and the late Garland Wright; her counsel to students, as the head of the graduate design program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts; and why she felt she was going to have to protect Frank Wedekind when she began work on the musical Spring Awakening.

Original air date - September 8, 2009
Running Time - 59:38



If you enjoyed this episode of Downstage Center you may want to:

Subscribe to podcast Subscribe to our podcasts