Toni-Leslie James has earned a third Tony Award nomination for her Broadway costume designs. Her work on the play Bernhardt/Hamlet will be considered for Best Costume Design of a Play at the 2019 Tony Awards alongside The Ferryman, Torch Song, To Kill a Mockingbird and Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus. James, associate professor and head of design for the theatre program, was previously nominated for her work on Jitney in 2017 and Jelly’s Last Jam in 1992.
“Bernhardt/Hamlet” stars Janet McTeer as Sarah Bernhardt, an internationally renowned theatrical performer who sets out to play the role of Hamlet in 1897. The play, written by Theresa Rebeck, also earned a Tony nomination for McTeer. James said the production offered compelling costume design challenges.
“The play takes place in 1898 and the characters required 19th-century day clothes, formalwear, rehearsal costumes for ‘Hamlet,’ and performance costumes for ‘Hamlet’ and the premiere of ‘Cyrano de Bergerac,’” James said. “The looks were specific to the time with 19th-century photographs of the named characters available online. All had to be created on an extremely tight budget along with a full set of understudy costumes. We built most of the women’s costumes, men’s suits, ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Cyrano’ costumes. We rented costumes from VCU, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Guthrie Theater, Goodspeed Musicals, and borrowed costumes from Lincoln Center and the Public Theater to make this happen.
“We were trying to create the right silhouette and balance for late-19th-century clothing and create a visible contrast between the clothing of the period and stage costumes of the period. We succeeded in that goal and fully supported the journey of the play.”
The 73rd annual Tony Awards ceremony will be broadcast by CBS from Radio City Music Hall in New York on June 9.
Read more about Toni-Leslie James at VCU News.
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