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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 17, 2000)
march 17.2000 » most plays the costumes are meant to draw little attention, except to mark the personal style of the charac ters and the era. The maxim doesn’t B i d true, however, in Blues for an Alabama I y, the Portland Center Stage production t ends its run March 18. This glorious k at the lives of five African Americans prohibition-era Harlem has as its main aracter a flashy gay man, who just happens be a costume designer for the Cotton Club d diva Josephine Baker. But for the onstage signer (played to exquisite perfection by mothy Piggee) to wear and exhibit his cre- ions, the costume shop manager for P C S had t to envision them. Enter designer Jeff Cone, a muscular, beard- I J bear whose towering size leads one to envi- I on him as a football star more than a cos- limer. In fact, Cone is the son of an ex-Green ay Packer and Hall o f Famer. (His earliest emory, he says, is of “my father taking me by e hand and taking me into the Green Bay 'ackers locker room. 1 remember all these Enormous naked men all around m e!”) Growing up, Cone had little interest in the me of football himself. “1 was a big old disappointment,” he notes ith a grin. “I have home movies of me in a iniature Packers uniform with a helmet and ¡11 that stuff. I looked totally perplexed. 1 had ot an inkling of interest in sports." Instead, his interest was in art, and his tai nt was supported by his grandfather, a com ercial artist. After attending Clemson Uni- ersity and studying psychology, acting and ostume design, Cone was accepted into the niversity of South Carolina on the strength f his graphic design portfolio. The head of the theater department offered me a graduate assistantship if 1 would ajor in theater,” Cone recalls. “The good hing about the assistantship is that 1 designed ihows and realized those designs. It wasn’t all lass projects. In my case, I produced almost verything that I designed. I learned all about making patterns, how to make costumes fit a particular body and how to make them look ike the costume sketch.” During his college days, Cone was outed to is parents by his sister, who is— ironically— ow a closeted lesbian herself, he says. “I believe she is closeted because she saw he incredible trauma that occurred when she uted me,” he says. After his parents confronted him about his lomosexuality, Cone was cut off from all con- act with and support from his family, a situa- ion that continued for 10 years. The turning aint in their relationship came after his moth- r helped care for a cousin dying of A ID S. A profile of Portland Center Stage costume designer Jeff Cone by A n dy M angels “I think that made my mom think,” he says. “We have a cordial, strained relationship now.” Cone was also involved in gay politics at U SC , part of a group of students who sued the college to establish a gay student alliance. “We went to federal court, and the judge ruled that they had to let us do that. We were setting precedents” he recalls, noting with a smile that “nobody really knew what to do with me.” He became the first student in the college’s history to graduate with a mas ter of fine arts degree in theater. Toward his goal of working in professional theater, Cone applied for a job with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, a major regional group. Although hired as a journeyman in the costume shop, after he showed his portfolio to the artistic director Cone was given the oppor tunity to design the costumes for Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart. He also worked on J E W E L A. R O B I N S O N Multimillion $ Producer O F F I C E (503) 2 8 1 -4 0 4 0 V O I C E M A IL (503) 3 0 1 -4 2 8 3 E - M A I L Jewel2U@teleport.com 730 N.E. 10th Avenue fortland, OR 97212__ Pruden tial Northw«*» Pearl Cleage’s first play, Flyin’ West, and later helped costume her second show, Blues for an Alabama Sky (with Phylicia Rashad).. After 10 years designing 25 productions in Atlanta, Cone accepted an offer from the Seattle Opera. He became the head “cutter” (the person who patterns and supervis es the construction of costumes) as well as the costume coordi nator for several shows. He didn’t work on any designs, however; he "was taking a little creative reju venation time.” Shortly after the costume shop went union and Cone lost all of his benefits, he got a call out of the blue from Creon Thome, the production manager for Portland Center Stage, asking him if he would consider the position of costume shop manager. As part of the enticement to take the job, Thome offered Cone the costume design job B A ndy M angels is a longtime entertainment writer with three books plus hundreds of comic books and magazine articles to his credit. You can write him at AMangelsSW @aol.com. See my E xc lu s ive Listings on our webpage http://www. pru-nw.com Mike 't haler author of the Black Lagoon s e r i e s will be signing copies o f his new series Heaven and Mirth Saturday, March 4 at 2:00pm f Saturday March 18, at 11:30 storyteller Roger L'oles will entertain children and adults with interactive tales M 0 SK PAMES on Bus Stop, the fourth play in P C S’s 1999-2000 season. “I was ready to design again,” says Cone. Once he got to Portland, he was excited to also be offered the design job on Blues for an Alabama Sky. The show has changed substantially since its world premiere in Atlanta, and it’s a costume designer’s dream. Blues has 25 costumes, 12 of which are worn by Timothy Piggee. “I gave Timothy’s character the bur den of showing the passage of time, since he’s in virtually every single scene, and most scenes take place on different days,” Cone explains. “I decided Ithat], as a flamboyant gay costume designer who dresses in an eccentric fashion, we could rationalize him having a large wardrobe. He changes his shirt, neckwear and vest in every scene.” The strong colors of Piggee s wardrobe also show that he stands out from the crowd, even in 1930s Harlem. The cos tumes are all designed for quick removal, with snaps and Velcro fasteners holding them in place onstage. Cone is emphatic that he couldn’t accom plish his work without the exceptional staff at PCS. “I have a craftsperson, a cutter, two stitch ers, a wardrobe person and a wig person on staff. I make sure they have everything they need to bring the costume designs to fruition and allow the show to run,” he explains. With the season’s final production, Gunshy, opening in late March— and his imminent visit to the Seattle Opera to work on its sum mer season megaproduction of Ring of the Nibelung — Cone has already discussed his return for next year’s PCS season. He will be designing next season’s fourth show, Closer, and the final show, A New Brain (the new gay- themed musical from the author of Falsettos). He’s also enthusiastically optimistic. “We have a new artistic director, Chris Coleman, who’s out and gay. He’s brilliant, both theatrically and generally speaking, and I’m feeling like for the first time in my life I’m in the right place at the right time,” Cone says. “I’m excited to be working with and designing at PCS. Time will tell, but I feel like the potential for really exciting, life-affecting theater...the potential is there. 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