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A Fitting Conclusion to a Well-Designed Career

“So, Deb,” I asked in a tone of equal parts innocence and incredulity, “you’re the resident designer of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and you design the costumes for only two or three shows a season?”

The question revealed the depth of my ignorance. I might as well have asked a heavyweight boxer why he fought in only a handful of bloody and debilitating, bone-crunching bouts a year. I clearly didn’t get what she did, or how.

So I was grateful when Deb, her face flickering with an unquenchable smile, waved off my embarrassment and described the intensity of her creative process. When she was done, I ought to have asked, “How could you possibly design costumes for as many as three plays a season?”

Beginning as a guest designer in 1979, and taking the reins as resident designer in 1995, Deb is stepping aside after this season to have time to explore other creative options.

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Tom Curtis & the OSF Stage Hands

The plot gets old fast and the dialog is less than scintillating. And, frankly, the costumes were lackluster: jeans, t- shirts, muscle shirts, tool belts. But the action is non-stop and visually compelling, coming at you at a breakneck pace with an element of suspense and a hint of potential danger in the wings to keep it interesting. The ensemble is about as well-disciplined, dedicated and unselfconscious as any you’ll find in professional theatre. You can tell they care. And their coordinated effort is like clockwork.

The show is a must-see. But the thing is, you can’t get a ticket. Because this was just a set change, not an OSF play. I was a guest of the director and choreographer, Tom Curtis, an 11-year veteran as Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s stage operations manager.

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