The Folger Theatre, Winter 2012

Directed by Eleanor Holdridge
Set Design by Marion Williams
Costume Design by Jessica Ford
Lighting Design by Nancy Schertler
Sound Design by Veronika Vorel

All pics copyright Jessica Ford

Syracuse Stage, Winter 2011

Directed by Anthony Salatino
Set Design by Troy Hourie
Costume Design by Jessica Ford
Lighting Design by Dawn Chiang
Musical Direction by Sarah Pickett
Sound Design by Jonathan Herter

All photos copyright T. Charles Erickson

RENT is a landmark musical. If you’ve seen it, you might find it hard to get out of your head. And it has FANS – serious FANS. They call them RENT-Heads.

I had mixed feelings about doing it. I must confess, I wasn’t a huge fan, and it would mean navigating strong opinions from a lot of people about how it should look. The original production elicited a massive response, and the ‘80s are now far enough in the past that they are having a style resurgence. Whether they were around for it or not, people have a powerfully nostalgic idea of what the clothes from 1989 should look like.

I had to find a way to get excited about this, but the problem solved itself. Looking at research from the East Village at the time, the real people that lived and struggled to make their work and died there, you can’t help but fall in love with this story. Especially since this Bohemian way of life doesn’t really exist in New York anymore, at least not in Manhattan.

The director, Tony Salatino, was clear that we weren’t doing the concert version. The story of this group of friends trying to survive as artists in the East Village needed to cut through the complexities and volume of the music. I wanted to support that by making the characters, including the members of the ensemble, as specific as possible. The looks of the ensemble cast are based on real people who lived on the Lower East Side at the time and participated in the protests. A few of them are depictions of real artists who died there.

CAST: Stanley Bahorek (Mark), Jordan Barbour (Tom Collins), Ross Baum (Ensemble), LilyAnn Carlson (Ensemble), Ken Clark (Roger), John Duff (Ensemble), Aisling Halpin (Ensemble), Jené Hernandez (Mimi), Antwayn Hopper (Benny, Ensemble), Rashidra Scott (Joanne), Mary Claire King (Ensemble), Katie LaMark (Ensemble), Sammy Lopez (Ensemble), Mia Michelle McClain (Ensemble), Matthew Hazen McGuire (Ensemble), Eric Meyers (Ensemble), Marcelo Pereira (Ensemble), Rashidra Scott (Joanne), Jose Sepulveda (Angel), Hannah Shankman (Maureen, Ensemble)

Two River Theatre Company, Winter 2011

Directed by Davis McCallum
Set Design by Jason Simms
Costume Design by Jessica Ford
Lighting Design by Matthew Richards
Sound Design and Original Music by Mark Bennet

All photos copyright T. Charles Erickson





























The Cast:
Michael Nathanson as Murray
Matthew Gumley as Nick
Crystal Finn as Sandra Markowitz
Brad Heberlee as Albert Amundson
Lou Liberatore as Arnold Burns
Nick Sullivan as Leo Herman

Syracuse Stage
Winter 2005

Directed by Melissa Kievman
Set by David Korins
Costumes by Jessica Ford
Lights by Mark Barton
Sound by Jonathan Herter

A handsome but paranoid young war veteran who sees insects everywhere holes up with a lonely drug addicted divorcee
in a dank Oklahoma motel room. The plot deepens when he begins to lure her into his alarmingly believable delusions.

All pics copyright David Korins

Photography Direction by Maryse Alberti
Edited by Kevin Messman
Production Design by Andrea Stanley
Costume Design and construction by Jessica Ford
Some wardrobe generously provided by Han Feng and Issey Miyake

Laurie Anderson wore her personal wardrobe, which included items by Issey Miyake

All photos appear courtesy of and are copyrighted by Maggie Soladay

“Hidden Inside Mountains is a film of short stories about nature, artifice and dreams, located in a fictitious world of theatrical spaces.”

The challenge for this project was to dress sets of twins and a set of triplets in a series of identical looks – without having seen them for fittings. Luckily some beautiful samples were generously contributed by Issey Miyake and Han Feng. I built some of the pieces for the girls and the older women that you see here and compiled a big stock of doubles and triples and hoped for the best! I was very new to New York, very green and very terrified.

Pictured:
The twins: Shane and Shawn Jenkins, Rita Alper and Jean Meadow, Colleen and Erin Conboy Regan
The triplets: Alex, Zach and Andrew Zoppa
Antony, Laurie Anderson

Shakespeare and Company – Summer 2006

Directed by Eleanor Holdridge
Set Design by Edward Check
Lighting Design by Les Dickert
Costume Design by Jessica Ford
Sound Design and Composition by Scott Killian

All pictures appear courtesy of Kevin Sprague ©2006



























Cast members pictured here: Jason Asprey, Tina Packer, Nigel Gore, Dennis Krausnick, Elizabeth Raetz, Kenajuan Bentley, John Windsor Cunningham, Kevin O’Donnell

Milwaukee Shakespeare Company – Spring 2005

Directed by Susan Finque
Set Design by Sergio Villegas
Costume Design by Jessica Ford
Lighting Design by Kurt Schnabel
Composer / Sound Design by Kevin Schlei
Wigs by Dave Bova
Clothes built by Kitty Schweitzer – Seams Unlimited, Racine, WI

All photos copyright Lila Arya

The director, Susan Finque, set this production in the early 17th century with an all male cast. The action takes place backstage as a traveling troupe of actors present a private performance of The Taming of the Shrew for a befuddled drunkard stagehand named Sly. The characters first enter the space as “actors.” We then watch as they transform into the characters in the play.

Pieter Codde, “Actors’ Changing Room” 1630s

At the end of the play, Michael Gotch spoke Kate’s “wives obey your husbands” speech as he was taking off his skirts and returning
to his male “actor” self. Michael and the actor playing Petruchio, Matt Daniels, ended the show like this.

Actors pictured here: Bryce Lord, Chase Stoeger, Michael Gotch, Matt Daniels, Miki Johnson, Jeff Withers, Nicholas Harazin, Jake Russo, Jonathan Daly, Michael Shelle, Bill Clifford, Ryan Lindberg, Matthew Koester, Nate Press, Darrel Cherney, Adibisi Agoro

People’s Light and Theatre Co. – Summer 2009

Directed by Jackson Gay
Set Design by Adrian Jones
Costume Design by Jessica Ford
Lighting Design by Dennis Parichy
Sound Design by Broken Chord Collective
Wigs by Dave Bova

All Photos copyright Mark Garvin

The cast: Claire Inie-Richards, Susan McKey, David Ingram, Aubie Merrylees, Ross Beschler

World Premier – Yale School of Drama
New Theatre Spring 2004

Directed by Brendan Hughes
Set Design by Jessica Ford
Costume Design by Amanda Walker
Lighting Design by Bryan Keller
Sound Design by Amber Papini
Puppets by Jessica Ford

The cast: Tijuana Ricks, LeRoy McClain, Jordan Mahome, Miki Johnson, Phyllis Johnson, Stephen Conrad

Ars Nova Theatre – Spring 2009

Directed by Andy Donald
Set Design by Josh Zangen
Costume Design and Construction by Jessica Ford
Lighting Design by Traci Klainer
Sound Design by Zane Birdwell
Video Design by Tim Fiore

All photos copyright Andriana Caradimitropoulo

This is Cathleen Carr and Daiva Deupree. They are hilarious. This show was a comedy/variety show of sorts, and the goal was to find a fun basic look upon which components could be added to tell the stories in the various scenes.

The big finale was an epic dream re-enactment, one part of which involved Daiva being birthed through a giant vagina.
Yes, that is a vagina and yes, I built it in my living room.