This week, my Blogtober travels included an Artist Talk with costume designer Christina Beam, the creator of In the Woods: a collection of full-scale, storybook-adjacent paper costumes.
This display of fantastical finery, complete with several decidedly spooky ensembles, was highlighted as part of 2023’s ArtWeek Berkshires, and featured Beam’s work that is both inspired by and made from the pages of classic stories and fairy tales.
Beam has constructed 11 characters ranging from Snow White to Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella to The Swan Maiden and beyond, working primarily with cardstock, copy paper, and Tyvek.
She drew upon dozens of her skills as a costume designer and model builder throughout the process, but also learned some new, “paper-centric” tricks—painstakingly choosing fonts for the text, devising large-format PDF files to print patterned reams, and creating simulated lace sleeves with the help of a hole-punch, to name a few.
“After a while, the paper punch literally fell apart in my hand.” Beam recalled.
The costumes have been featured as part of the Emerging Artist Exhibit at the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc. (USITT) Conference and at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space; Beam is currently seeking her next gallery space.
ArtWeek Berkshires is a week-long celebration of arts and culture that includes interactive events, behind-the-scenes opportunities, and open studios across the region. It’s presented by the five Cultural Districts of Berkshire County, and promoted by 1Berkshire.
Photos c) jcs
About the Artist
Christina Beam is a New York and New England based costume designer and technician whose work spans theater, opera, dance and film. Christina holds an MFA in costume design from UMass Amherst, having completed an assistantship that included rigorous work in costume construction.
Some of her recent design credits include Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge (UMass), Re/Emergence (The Re/Emergence Collective), The Tempest (Hartt), A Walk in the Woods (Shakespeare & Company), The Mystery of Irma Vep (Silverthorne Theater Company), Pride@Prejudice (Chester Theatre Company), Matilda (Wheelock Family Theatre), and Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight (Duende Productions).
Her designs for The Lily’s Revenge were included in the Emerging Artist Exhibit at the 2019 USITT Conference and also at the 2019 Prague Quadrennial, and they were recently displayed as part of the 2022 World Stage Design Emerging Artist Exhibit in Calgary.
Her costumes for the In the Woods photography project were selected to be featured as part of the 2023 USITT/USA Prague Quadrennial Emerging Artist Exhibit, which was displayed at the USITT conference in March and will be displayed again at the 2023 Prague Quadrennial in July.
Christina is also currently working as the Costume Shop Supervisor at Western Connecticut State University. For further examples of her work, please visit christinabeamdesign.com.
