Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2012 - 51

character Deborah Franklin, wife of Benjamin Franklin, in the
2010 one-woman show First Lady of Philadelphia: The Life
and Times of Deborah Franklin - A Personal Story by Roberta
Sloan and Dennis Moritz. From the costume's conception to the
realized garment, designer Marie Anne Chiment made choices
to adhere as closely as possible to the historical research while
finding more ways to work within the constraints of limited
time, labor, and money.

THE PLAY
First Lady of Philadelphia was conceived and performed by Dr.
Roberta Sloan and was partly funded by the Temple University
Provost's Arts Commission. The play begins during the Stamp
Act riots of 1765−66. Benjamin Franklin was wrongly accused
of defending the act while he was in England, leaving his wife,
Deborah, behind to defend their home in Philadelphia from the
protesting mobs. The play opens with Deborah confronting the
angry mob, after which she begins to reminisce about meeting
Benjamin when she was a young girl in 1723. The play follows
Deborah throughout her life, highlighting the important milestones, until her death in 1774.

THE DESIGN
Very little visual and written information is available about Mrs.
Franklin. The only known portrait of her (fig. 1) was painted
around 1758−59 when she was approximately fifty years old.
Although the aim of the design was not to recreate a Deborah
Franklin look-alike, Chiment wanted to incorporate as many historically accurate details as possible into the costume to give the
audience a more authentic experience, allowing them to learn
and understand more about the character of Deborah Franklin.
Chiment also had other issues to address when designing the costume. The actress was in her early sixties when the
play was presented. She needed to portray Deborah Franklin at
several stages throughout her life. Since the play is a one-woman show and the actress never leaves the stage, costume, wig,
and makeup changes denoting changes in the character's age
weren't possible. It therefore became part of Chiment's design

to help indicate the stages of Deborah's life through additions
and subtractions of costume pieces.
The play's only reference to Deborah's clothing is a comment she makes that her dress is of "good cloth, a well made
dress in the new fashion." This comment comes during the part
of the play when she is lamenting over her husband's supposed
affair with his landlady, the widow Stephenson, while he is in
London. To support Deborah's complaint, Moritz uses a reference found in a letter from Benjamin to Deborah in which he
mentions that the widow Stephenson helped with the selections
of cloth he sent to her. From their portraits, Moritz observed
the size difference between Deborah's Rubenesque figure and
Widow Stephenson's rail thin figure. To highlight this point
Moritz wrote several lines referring to the dress that was sent to
Deborah as being "a few sizes too small."
Chiment's research of the period supplied information on
the silhouette, fabrics, and colors that would accurately convey
the time and place in which Deborah lived. She was also inspired by a series of costumes designed by Donna Zakowska for
Laura Linney, who portrayed Abigail Adams in the 2008 HBO
miniseries John Adams. Originally, the designer planned to
dress Deborah in a subdued costume, similar to the everyday
clothes worn by Abigail in an early episode of the miniseries.
However, she later decided to set the style of the dress at a later
date in Deborah's life, when she would be closer to the actress's
age. At that point in their lives, Benjamin and Deborah Franklin
were wealthier and had risen to a higher level of Philadelphia
society and would be dressed accordingly. Furthermore as
Franklin's letter states, because of Benjamin's travels to England, Deborah did have access to and received fine European
fabrics from her husband. Therefore the designer could justify
the choice of a more elegant style and finer fabrics to create
the costume.
Chiment originally considered a style of dress that included a fitted jacket over a quilted skirt. This choice was
abandoned after realizing it would not be a very flattering style
for the actress. More vertical lines were needed to help elongate the actress's figure and create a more visually pleasing

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