It's All in the Costuming: An Evening with Dianne Holly

(Dianne showing costume renderings for a production of Chicago)

On Tuesday, July 15, the Mountain Empire Creative Arts Council was treated to the amazing artistry of new Pine Valley resident, Dianne Holly, at our monthly Arts Fellowship meeting at the Pine Valley Library. Dianne's remarkable experience and expertise in the theatre arts is astounding: she has worked on hundreds of productions with the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, San Diego State University, and the University of California at Santa Barbara, among others. As a theatre designer, she has been responsible for much of the artistic vision of each production, including costuming, props, and, occasionally, stage design.


(Costume renderings for a production of Chicago)

Theatre design is not a solitary art like painting and writing can be; rather, theatre arts require great collaboration among the director, costume designer, lighting designer, stage designer, and other members of the production crew. Dianne explained the process of costume design, starting with laying out complicated plans for which actors will be involved in which scenes, including the amount of time for costuming changes between scenes. Next, the renderings for costumes are sketched out in pencil and ideas are discussed with the director and other designers, including color palette, textures, time period representation, etc. Dianne then creates watercolor renderings for each costume (some of which are included here for your enjoyment) and then shops for costume materials herself, attaching sample materials to the renderings for reference in the theatre "shop," where all the costumes and props are produced.


(Costume rendering of a bird in a production of Peter Pan)

Dianne, who holds a Masters of Fine Arts in design, has also taught theatre design at San Diego State University and UC Santa Barbara to students in addition to helping produce plays at both universities. She stated that at any one time she might be involved in up to five productions: costumes for dance performances, plays just beginning production, plays in mid-production, plays in rehearsal, and plays being performed on stage. It was Dianne's usual routine to be at the university by 9 AM for meetings and classes, spend the afternoon in the "shop" where the costumes are being created or in meetings with the director or other crew, then be on hand at rehearsals from 5 PM to 7 PM, and finally help with the actual stage production starting at 8 PM, finishing her day at midnight to 1 AM by the time the stage production wrapped up and everything was back in its place. At that late hour she would go home to work on watercolor renderings for plays in early production stages. Saturdays involved long drives to Los Angeles for costume materials. Such is the life of the theatre!


(Watercolor rendering of costumes for Hotel Paradiso)

After many years of this grueling schedule, Dianne retired just a year ago to Pine Valley where she lives with her brother. She is still involved in freelance theatre design and plans to sell some of her beautiful watercolor renderings. Dianne has already been involved in a local production of Twelfth Night with the Pine Valley Players,a group of homeschooled students, this past spring, and planning further local productions for young people and for adults is in the works. We at MECAC are thrilled to have Dianne as part of our Board of Directors, both as Theatre Director and also as Secretary, a responsibility she will be taking over from Susanne Barrett as of August 1.


(Costume renderings and sample fabrics for a production of the Restoration comedy The Rover)

We welcome Dianne Holly to the Mountain Empire area and to MECAC in particular. We have been, are, and will be blessed by Dianne's creativity, artistic vision, experience, expertise, and willingness to help start a theatre program here in the backcountry. Keep checking back here on the site and keep an eye out for fliers around the area and for announcements in the Valley Views and other sources for opportunities in local theatre arts. And please attend our monthly Arts Fellowship meetings, the third Tuesday of each month at the Pine Valley Library -- they are a treat not to be missed!