Amelia Cheever This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Pioneer Press | 07/22/2003 | quick-change artists

   www.twincities.com/mld/pioneer - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/23/2003   Last Visited: 7/23/2003

   But the key to a successful production of "Irma Vep" lies in the hands - or, more precisely, the fingers - of costumer Amelia Cheever, who has had to design clothes that can convey comedy, vaguely suggest a time period... and be ripped off and put on in a handful of seconds.
   
   "We've loosely based the story in Victorian England," she said, making little air quotations with her fingers in describing the period. "So that means silks and wools, but we also twist it a little bit."
   
   Gesturing to an iridescent orange dress hanging from a dressing dummy and augmented with a pair of breasts-by-Nerf, Cheever said, "I don't think you'd actually see someone from the period dressed like that. But it gives an idea."
   
   Cheever, who works days in the costume department at the Guthrie Theater, has designed several shows at Minneapolis' Jungle Theater. It's her second time designing "Irma Vep" - the first was for a production in Vermont that was assembled on a hellacious two-week production schedule - so she's well acquainted with what does and does not work on the show.
   
   She knows, for instance, that costumes have to be built especially sturdily to accommodate all the lickety-split off-and on-ing that happens dozens of times a night over the course of a five-week run. She knows that, after her work is completed, the success of the show will ride on the two off-stage dressers who strip, re-dress and re-wig the actors at a furious pace.
   
   And she knows that Velcro - usually the enemy of a well-built costume - is absolutely indispensable in a show like "Irma Vep."
   
   "Here's how it works," she explained.
   ...
   To assure that all the switches go smoothly, Sass and Cheever have allowed an unusually long week's worth of rehearsal for the dressers and the actors.
   ...
   Though most of the designs for "Irma Vep" were inspired by perusing a book of Victorian images, Cheever finds inspirations for costumes everywhere - in books, magazines, movies, even from walking down the street.
   
   "I just love watching the world around me," she said.