Every winter, sophomores, juniors, and seniors studying design and production at the University of Michigan’s Department of Theatre & Drama at the School of Music, Theatre and Dance showcase their work. The BFA Theatre & Drama Design & Production Portfolio Exhibition is a free event at the Duderstadt Center Gallery on North Campus that runs January 28 to February 7.

“The goal of the portfolio review,” says Christianne Myers, who teaches costume design and is head of design and production, “is to get students thinking about how they talk about their work and to contextualize their growth.” They also think about what they might want to study next, to fill in gaps or expand on an interest. “It’s helpful to hear their thoughts in the context of the work they’ve done so far.”

To this end, faculty members meet with students before the review is open to others, ask questions, and look over the work they did during their time at the university; this includes summer projects at other venues between school years but not work they might have done before enrolling. 

Students talk about their process and their goals to the whole faculty, even those who haven’t had them in class. Chip Miller, the associate artistic director of Portland Center Stage, will come from Oregon to serve as a guest respondent so students can get an outsider’s take on their presentations.  

“In the end, it’s an occasion, a chance for students to celebrate their work." 

Costume designer Kayti Sanchez went to a performing arts high school and arts middle school in Florida. She’s done costume construction at several theaters and served as a costume intern on the Broadway production Here Lies Love. At U-M, she has designed costumes for the student-run musical theater group MUSKET and assisted on mainstage productions. A junior, her designs will appear on the Power Center stage for the first time when Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men is there February 20-23.

Sanchez has been through this process before. It helps to “know what to expect and what the space looks like,” she says. Her display will include images from projects she did for classes in design as well as in tailoring and costume construction.  There will be renderings and character boards, even a mannequin wearing a costume she created. 

The process helps Sanchez learn how to present herself, something that will be useful when she competes for design jobs in the theater world. “I’m learning how to market myself and to be able to talk about my work in a succinct manner, and to showcase my design style,” she says. The faculty interviews prepare her to answer questions on the spot.  

Justin Comini began stage managing at a community playhouse when he was in middle school. Before he’d finished high school, the U-M sophomore had interned at a regional theater in his hometown, Montclair, New Jersey, and worked on a Broadway-bound production. 

Like the others, Comini is in the Theatre Design and Production program, and now he’s exhibiting a portfolio that includes a little of everything he’s studied so far, designs and the kind of paperwork stage managers produce in order to keep a production on track: schedules, prop books, and a whole lot more.

Stage managers are never in the limelight. There is no stage management category at the Tonys and their work isn’t evaluated in reviews. Audiences, who too often don’t even know who designed the shows they watch, almost never know who stage-managed them. 

Yet stage management is critical to the process, and Comini loves the job. He says studying design and production will make him a better stage manager—he’s not looking to change the direction of his career. “I love getting to facilitate art," he says. The program at U-M "has given me a lot stronger appreciation for my fellow collaborators and the love and heart that goes into designing.” 

But it does feel great to have a chance to display work that he’s done.  “We spend so much of our year supporting other people’s visions,” he says. “We don’t have a lot of artistic input. I’m really excited for them [student designers, actors, faculty] to see our work.”

Lauren Streng had never taken an art class when she came to U-M. She was heading toward a career in mechanical engineering and had studied drafting. When her sister encouraged her to apply for a double degree in theater design as well as engineering, she decided "to explore the other side of my brain. I’m having a wonderful time.” So wonderful that she now plans a career in scenic design and says her work in mechanical engineering will be useful in it. 

Classes and preparation for the reviewing is a way of “getting to learn a lot about your own process,” she says, adding that selecting and setting up her display has helped her create a narrative about her work.

Knowing that she would be showing her work made her think about what she was doing while she was doing it. “I don’t just go from beginning to end without taking pictures,” she says, explaining that after assembling everything she decided to show at the review, she was able to write down her process and look through her photographs to help re-create it. 

She’ll be showing models of scenery she created for classes as well as photographs. In one class, for instance, students read, analyzed, and researched the world of August Wilson’s Jitney, then devised their own designs for the play. “We transformed our 2D ideas into 3D, in the form of hand-made quarter-inch models,” Streng says. “Any props that were called for in the script, or otherwise imagined by the students, were also made in scale. In my model, these props include a payphone, pot-belly stove, blackboard, couch, coffee cup, checkerboard, and more.”

Streng looks forward to showing her work to student actors and those in different areas of design as well as to the general public, “a different crowd that doesn’t know your process," she says. "It’s kind of intimidating, but it’s really cool.” 

Students show the research they do for projects as well as early drafts of what may be very different final products.  “We emphasize the importance of process. Students talk about why something changed. It demonstrates flexibility and collaboration,” says Myers, noting that what comes up in a fitting room or dress rehearsal may significantly alter the look of a costume. The same is true for scenic and lighting projects. The idea isn’t to begin with a beautiful, finished rendering but an idea that’s subject to change.

Streng, for instance, will include project binders with all her research for a show as well as early sketches.

Comini says he’s including “things I’m not necessarily super proud of. For me, it was all about showing my process.” That, he says, includes “failing and growing.” 

This gives those who don’t work in theater a chance to get a close-up look,  too.  “I would love for people to see what goes into a show, to see what goes on behind the scenes,” says Sanchez. 

Davi Napoleon, a theater historian and freelance writer, holds a BA and MA from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from New York University. Her book is Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theatre.

The "BFA Theatre & Drama Design & Production Portfolio Exhibition" runs through February 7 at the Duderstadt Center Gallery, 2281 Bonisteel Boulevard, Ann Arbor. The event is free.