Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2004 - 63

Tonight, you are a captive audience and every now and then, as my students will tell you, I take advantage of that situation for a little proselytizing.
For costume students I vow to flunk them if they do not master the differences
between a tail coat and a tuxedo and know when you should wear which.
And for you, I'd like to share a few more thoughts about how to
make living and working with other muggles a little easier. We hear it over
and over again that we are our own worst enemies. We hear it because it is
true. We can sell ourselves short because we think we don't know something
or we have decided that we are not going to find the solution.
As some of you know, I am an equestrian. For the past fourteen or so
years, I've been taking regular horseback riding lessons. Being a student
has taught me a great deal about teaching and a great deal about learning.
In all equestrian sports, whether you are cutting a barrel or jumping a fence, you need to look where you want to go. If you do not look
where you want to go, you will not get there. I offer the thought that you
also want to think about where you want to go. If I look at and think I
can ride that fence/bank/drop combination-I can. If I look at and think
I can make an effective sketch-I can, and if I look for and think I can
find common ground with a colleague, I usually can.

Look where you want to go,
believe you can get there.
If you don't, you won't.
This is simple straightforward advice. People are often afraid of the
simple, straight forward, common sense ideas or solutions because they
don't seem hard enough, or sophisticated enough, particularly for very
clever, creative people. My advice is don't ignore the "easy solution." You
don't have to have a series of original, unique, or extraordinary solutions
or proposals. You need the ideas or thoughts that suit the situation. You
don't have to know all of the answers. You have to know how to recognize and embrace them when they come along or ask for help to find
them. Many of you know the "kiss" approach-"keep it simple stupid."
Embrace that concept. And always remember simplicity is elegant.
I have always said that the best part of being a costume designer is that I
work with everyone-the designers, technicians, artisans, actors, even the
management. And the same was true of being president of USITT; all nine
commissions, the exhibitors and commercial members, national office staff,
and the general membership. Now, as a department chair, I enjoy meeting
and working with people all across campus as well as my own faculty, staff
and students. All of the people in your world can help you with the one last
strategy. For stubborn or repetitious problems looking at them from a different perspective is often very productive. The twenty-first century calls this
"thinking outside of the box." It's easier to get outside that box when you
do it with someone else or with a whole group. It's collaboration again.
In all my dealings with people I've found being smart and talented is
helpful, but its honesty and the all too uncommon "common sense" that
really serves you well. And common sense is native to muggles, so I think
making magic is guaranteed for all of us for some time to come. ❖

Sarah Nash Gates is a costume designer and professor and is
executive director of the University of Washington School of
Drama. She was president of USITT from 1992 to 1994, the first
woman to hold that office.
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