Interview with Taylor Yaeck, Costume Designer for Mother Earth's Gallery of Broken Things, written by Theatre 200 Marketing Practicum student Tory Noble.

Mother Earth’s Gallery of Broken Things is now open through Sunday, May 2, 2021.

What about this specific theatrical piece made you interested in working as a costume
designer?

A lot of the pieces have a lot of extraterrestrial, humanoid, but not human elements in it.
The eagles and the aliens and other things like that -- there are so many animals and strange
humanoid things that are incorporated into the show that I thought would be so fun to bring to
life through costumes.

How has the idea of climate change and being environmentally conscious informed your
decisions about costuming?

A lot of what we were using and wanted to use was all things that we either had or that I
was trying to source out and just source really ethically. I’d say 90%, maybe… 83? They were
things that we had already so we didn’t have to buy anything or have anything made. Something
that I thought about for the eagles that didn’t end up being put into fruition and I just thought
would be super cool for future reference and just something great to keep in mind is I was going
to use plastic bags for the wings. It ended up not being logistically sound, but that is something
that informed the way we moved around the costuming.

Why is this piece of work important to you personally?

I love costume design and I’ve been super interested to actually do physical costume
design that would be put into real life. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do recently so I was
super happy to get the chance to do that. As well as just everything with climate change and
being ethically sound is something that I really want to implement in my future costume design
and really any costume design I do, so it was great practice to put that into fruition.

How has this job made you a better theatre student in your opinion?

I think for a lot of different reasons. Like I said, I really just want to continue ethically
sourcing things for any theatrical work that I do, so being exposed to that a little more has been
really helpful. As well as being exposed to designing things that aren’t just standard human
bodies and making exaggerated choices or personality choices or honestly just anything that
really shows the personality of these animals while still being animals. I will say some of it
definitely hits the line of cheesy but I’m okay with a little cheese sometimes.

How do you feel that the costumes add to the production value of these performances?

I think that without the costumes, especially for Brackendale and Failed Experiment --
Brackendale is the eagle one and Failed Experiment deals with the aliens -- but I think that you
really need the costumes and makeup and everything to show that these really are eagles or
aliens because, without it, it’s not really going to convey the actual things that they are. It also has
to do with personality too. With the aliens, we added different hairstyles; the really fun and
quirky one had space buns while the other was a slick back ponytail and they had different
accessories or when they twinkle, the scientist has big fun hair and disheveled everything to
show that she is kind of kooky and crazy. And the same thing with the eagles, adding different
accessories to them but keeping some parts uniform to show that they are what they are. They are
the species of eagles or aliens or whatever it may be.

For more information about free ticketing, please visit Miami University’s Box Office HERE. This is a free event but it will be ticketed to maintain safe capacity and social distancing. For more information please visit the MU Theatre website HERE.

If you go:

Mother Earth’s Gallery of Broken Things: Miami University Theatre’s Climate Change Theatre Action, Directed by Ann Elizabeth Armstrong

April 29, 30 & May 1, 2, 7:30 p.m., Center for Performing Arts Plaza
Rain Dates: May 2 & 3

Short Performances: 

“Failed Experiment” by Vitor Jatoba

“The Butterfly that Persisted” by Lana I. Nasser

“Blood on the Leaves” by Madeline Sayet

“About that Chocolate Bar” by Joan Lipkin

“The Blue Puzzle” by Clare Duffy

“When they Twinkle” by Tyler Creech

“Brackendale” by Elaine Avila  

“Letter to the Ocean” by Caridad Svich

“It begins with Me” by Chantal Bilodeau

The team designing the production experience includes: students Tyler Creech (scene design); Kelsi Moore, Lily Rose, Annie Watson, Qiuyang Xiong (dramaturgs); Emily Stowers (assistant choreographer); Kevin Woeste (composer and sound designer); Jenna Wrona (lighting design); Taylor Yaeck (costume designer); Miami University faculty and staff members Gion DeFrancesco (production manager and designer); Ashley Goos (choreographer) Meggan Peters (costume) Curtis Mortimore (lighting/technical direction); and guest artists Jaclyn Schott (director) and Jason Sebasian (sound design).