To improve any skill, you must practice it.  As I enter my final year at Wake Forest, my goal is to improve my skills in costume design by iterating on the Costume Design process through my Honors Project.  The designs themselves will be a series of what I call Theoretical Ballgowns, gowns based on the Theatre Department’s season shows instead of a specific character.  The Theoretical Ballgowns will draw specific inspiration from each show, backed by significant research on the play and playwright, character analyses of each named character, an overarching mood board of the play, and a mood board for the ballgown specifically.  These items will be constant across all shows, and for each show, a new element of the costume design process will be added.  For Failure, A Love Story, a thumbnail, draft, and final non-colorized rendering will be completed.  For Baskerville, all the elements of Failure, A Love Story, will be completed, along with a colorized rendering and swatches.  For Old Times, a full mock up will be completed, and for Mamma Mia, a full mockup and a fully finished design will be completed.  By iterating on the process in this way, I will be able to develop my skills in the fundamental research and rendering portion of Costume Design, while also refining my ability to turn a design into a fully complete project.  After the completion of each show, I will display my work in the lobby for the audiences to view,  as well as do a write up on the process for that show and update the Honors Project section of my website portfolio.  The final presentation of my project will be at WakeVille, and will include elements from all shows.  

As part of this project, I intend to take THE 399 in the Spring semester (Spring 2026).  While my work does begin Summer of 2025, it makes more sense to complete the class when in the semester in which I complete the project.