BROOMSTICK
Artists Repertory Theater – Fall | 2016 – By John Biguenet – Director - Gemma Whelan
A fairytale-twisted yarn of delightful humor and spine-tingling suspense conjures a spooky seasonal experience unlike any other. With Vana O’Brien in a tour-de-force solo performance, an Appalachian witch tells a heartfelt and poetic tale of her long life from first love, to heartache, to the hair-raising vengeance she wreaks upon those who’ve crossed her.
The setting, theater space and acting was very intimate so the costume attention to detail was of utmost importance. The text referenced many details about the costume including “stolen” things stitched into the skirt hem, trinkets around the neck and past childhood details about the underclothes. My approach was to have the character shed layer after layer as the story, and the truth, unfolded, and then, process reversed as the end of the play was near. Beads, skulls, rings, buttons, bones, coins and many other found objects were stitched everywhere on this costume.