Splash Biography

ERIKA DUNN-WEISS, Neuroscientist secretly wants to costume Broadway

Major: Not available.

College/Employer: Not available.

Year of Graduation: Not available.

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Hallo friends and random people!

I'm a second year at UChicago probably studying neuroscience but since I'm indecisive and love everything that might change.
Anyway the relevant stuff: I've always loved sewing, made my own prom dress and embarked on other spontaneous sewing projects into the early hours of the morning, and was always a sucker for dressing up past the years where that's normal. Oh and of course I always had to make all of my Halloween costumes! ...and would even throw something together for most history presentations too...
Plus, I love theatre and always gushed over the costumes that I had the chance to wear. So, low and behold I came to UChicago and thought, what the heck, costume designing sounds really fun, I want to give it a shot! Well, my instinct was right on, costume designing is awesome and fabulous. If you're into theatre it's especially awesome to look at it from the design angle for a change. I was an assistant for one show and am now the main designer for another so I'll be able to tell you all of the tricks of the trade.

Cheers,
Erika

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

A636: Costume Designing: Creative Processes in Splash! Fall 2010 (Oct. 02, 2010)

Have you ever noticed the way that an outfit can take over our first impressions of a person? Literally everything from the character's sense of movement, the openness or rigidness of their personality, their level of power or artistic flair--all of these subconscious levels of understanding a character begin with a fabric's weight, cut, and color. In this class we explore the creative processes that bring a character in a script from a fuzzy outline in our mind to a visual reality. We will work together and individually on various exercises to help get the ideas moving, and the class will culminate in reading an excerpt from a script and creating our own design boards. Throughout the class we will discuss everything from the considerations of a designer and our unique inspirations to what it takes to move from vision to execution. Note: drawing ability NOT required.