Who: Sarah Laux
Where: Outside HERE Arts Center
How did you get into costume design?
SL: It was a total accident. I was supposed to be a lawyer. I had a crazy breakup when I was in college and auditioned for The Boyfriend musical, even though I wasn鈥檛 an actor. I got cast as an old woman. [When I] went to the costume shop for a fitting, I thought, 鈥淭his is a job?鈥� I had no idea. I had no idea that everything we saw鈥攚hether it be [in] commercial, film, TV or theatre鈥攈ad been curated by someone. I immediately became obsessed. I did a work-study at my college and many years at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; I fell into it. I moved to New York to work on a movie and never left. That was 20 years ago.
Twenty years! What are some of your career highlights?
SL: I鈥檝e had an interesting trajectory. I worked in a costume shop for a long time, I was a crafts person, I was a milliner, I did wardrobe鈥擨鈥檝e done all of the jobs that you can do! I was also an associate for some big Broadway shows, which helped me learn a lot. Most recently鈥攊n the last four years鈥擨 started designing again. The biggest [highlight] right now would have to be The Humans. That鈥檚 still something that is flabbergasting [to me].
How amazing for you to have worked on that show Off-Broadway鈥攈elping it come to life鈥攁nd to see it transfer to the Broadway stage. Tell me a bit about your process.
SL: I like to work really closely with the actors, and my specialty is clothes; I don鈥檛 like it to look like a costume unless it鈥檚 supposed to be a costume. I call it 鈥渃urating reality.鈥� I say this all the time: basically, if people don鈥檛 notice the clothes, then I鈥檝e done my job correctly. It鈥檚 about supporting the text and supporting the action. When audiences go to see The Humans, they don鈥檛 think that there鈥檚 a costume designer. There鈥檚 a feeling that these people just walked out [onstage]. I鈥檓 from a blue-collar background, and it was important to me that characters like that are not caricatured in any way.
