By Allison Lozada with additional reporting from the Gothic Times Staff—
Flo Rutherford, of the Music and Theatre Department, was the costume designer that recently dressed up Done to Death at the New Jersey City University (NJCU) Margaret Williams Theatre. Learning to sew from her grandmother in high school, Rutherford always tried to tie her talents in with history.
“A lot of shows are set in different historic periods. As you are working on trying to do research, you may find out a lot about a period when looking at pictures and how people have worn their clothes,” explains Rutherford.
She added that it’s not enough to just learn about the period but also have the actor realize the importance of the costumes. “You have to try to not only learn about the different period but you have to help the performer understand that these are not just strange and exotic but that these are things people have to feel comfortable in.”
Having gone to Wake Forest University for her undergrad studies, Rutherford became involved in the theatre department. “When I first got involved there was [no permanent] designer on staff at the time, so students did a lot of the costumes. After realizing I was a bad actress, I learned I was better at sowing.” Rutherford explained she “felt at home” when it came down to designing. For almost forty years she has been working as a costume designer.
Besides working at NJCU, Rutherford has worked in regional theatre, off-Broadway, in a summer theatre, and more recently, with a children’s company.
In Done to Death she worked with the director, Anderson Johnson, to realize what his vision was for the play. In the comedic lighthearted mystery, Rutherford created the costumes to transition from reality to the imaginary parts of the play.
“As a costume designer you review the script and understand each character and select clothes that will define that character’s personalities and how they interact with the other characters,” said Rutherford, “When dealing with a play, the director always has a vision and you [the costume designer] want to help the director realize that vision.”
Scarlett Santiago, 22, Psychology major from North Bergen played as Jane in Done to Death said the costumes were fantastic considering the little time and budget Rutherford was given. “They were really good. They stuck to the time and what needed to be done. The budget we had and the time she had, it was well done because we had limitations.” Rutherford was given about a month and half to design, fit, and alter all costumes before show time.
“There was some stuff she had in storage and then there were things she needed to go out and buy,” said Santiago. She was content that despite the lack of time, all costumes were done beautifully.
Creating a similar image, but staying away from the exact replica was most enjoyable to Rutherford when working on the designs for Done to Death.
“Because the play was parodying certain style of mystery writing, essentially, the characters in the role were similar to Agatha Christie… having to go back and look at these different people and coming up with a way to reference Nick and Nora Charles,” said Rutherford.
The main goal was to have people who are familiar with these characters realize they are being represented in the play.
Depending on the play, different things inspire Rutherford. She works with so many different genres that she can’t get her inspirations all from one place and it varies from music to art, etc.
“Every show is different [and] that’s what makes it interesting,” said Rutherford.
She teaches that even something as random as fish or a rum and coke can become an inspiration when looked deeper than the surface.
