ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
by Ken Hoyt
Culture Club
No Tin Soldiers. No toy guns.
L
ive theatrical productions offer a special kind of illusion not found in other
forms of entertainment. While film images are often enhanced and manipulat-
ed electronically, live performance requires real, tangible, yet seemingly magi-
cal skills to convey mood, character and subtext.
Costumer and professor Darrin Pufall started early. “Some kids take their
bedspreads and make forts; I would drape mine into period bustle skirts! When we would go on family vaca-
tions, I wouldn’t bring home tin soldiers and toy guns from historical museums. No, I brought home period dress
pattern books!”
Pufall began college focusing on musical theatre performance.
His trajectory changed when many of the small productions he
worked with couldn’t afford a costumer. He would step in to save
them. He says, “For a few years I was performing and designing
simultaneously and slowly began to appreciate the rewards of
simply being a costume designer.” It’s a decision for which he has
no regrets, “I love the collaboration process with the production
team and the actors. I feel I am very fortunate to offer the first
glimpse of a character, through my sketches, to both a director
and an actor.”
Pufall was a resident of Portland for just a few years, but contin-
ues to have strong professional and personal ties that bring him
back several times annually. This summer he’ll be designing the
costumes for The Mock’s Crest production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s
The Gondoliers. Later this year he’ll be producing costumes and
puppets for Triangle Productions staging of Avenue Q.
Though Pufall has designed many shows throughout his career
his start was in musical theatre. His early mentor, Paul Favini,
felt that he needed to step beyond the glamour and sparkle. He
suggested Waiting for Godot. “Suddenly all that glitz and se-
quins turned into existentialist dirt and grime. I really had to dig
deep into Beckett’s text to find the meaning and pathos behind these characters. It is a seemingly simple play, but
so much happens. It pretty much changed the way I approached the design process from then on.”
Photo Orin Zyvan
Arts & Entertainment
Editor Ken Hoyt is a
media regular in
Portland. Reach him at
ken@justout.com.
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That doesn’t mean designing an operetta is easy. “I think Gilbert and Sullivan can be tricky, especially those [shows]
in the well-known cannon (The Mikado, The Gondoliers, The Pirates of Penzance). Audiences have a certain
expectation with those productions. Because of the comic nature of G&S I hardly become a slave to a particular
clothing period. I will often mix periods to create a world specific to the production.” That world will be in place at
the Mago Hunt Theatre at University of Portland throughout most of June.
June 2012