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Arts & Entertainment

Costume Designer Decks out Steampunk 'Tempest' at Marin Shakes

Mill Valley native, Abra Berman, enjoys her work outfitting Bay Area performers.

Costume and clothing designer Abra Berman of Novato has a passion for her craft and says she loves the feeling fabric in her hands. Even more, "I love the sound of fabric tearing," she says. 

As the designer for Marin Shakespeare Company's season, the Mill Valley native is seeing her work being paraded under the lights for the third and final show of the season "The Tempest," which runs until Sept. 25.

"It's harder than it looks," she says of her trade. "You don't just snap your fingers and, POOF, a costume arrives …"

Shakespeare's "The Tempest" has magic woven into its plot: Deposed Duke of Milan, Prospero, stranded on a desert island, develops supernatural powers that he uses to shipreck his usurpers and ultimately restore his "rightful" position.

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Marin Shakespeare director Jon Tracy has charged the play with a slightly different premise. Prospero is being modeled after turn-of-century Croatian inventor Nikola Tesla, a pioneer in the field of electricity who expanded the safety and affordability of electricity by creating alternating or "AC" current. Tesla has been dubbed "the man who lit up the world." Tracy adds an exploration of invention and science to the play's theme of illusion.

The Tesla concept was a jumping-off point for Berman, who immediately envisioned a Steampunk world. For those not familiar with the cult-like trend, here's a definition of the burgeoning movement from the Steampunk Bible: "A grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science fiction culture." Steampunk gatherings involve participants in self-made period dress, often with robot-like elements, inspired by the science fiction and steam-powered technology of the Victorian age.

Berman speaks about theme and its execution with a scholar's thoughtfulness. And why wouldn't she? She has a master's degree in costume design from UCLA. Of the Tesla Tempest, she says the costumes are "a stripped-down Steampunk … realistic to the period they are set in (Edwardian). There are robot-ish people, but costumed like humans in a Charlie Chaplain and Fatty Arbuckle style."

Berman didn't want to give all the production's surprises away, but she shared that the character Ariel, the sprightly henchman of Prospero, is played by many actors in this production. Director Tracy chose to depict Ariel as electricity incarnate.

Berman, who grew up participating in ballet and costuming, received her early training in fashion design and merchandizing at the Louise Saligner Art Institute, now named The Art Institute of California. She now teaches at the college in San Francisco alongside many of her former professors. She describes that as "an honor." Berman's mother is a biology teacher and an aunt who heads the creative writing department at a local college, so going into teaching came somewhat naturally to her.

In addition to costuming Bay Area theater, opera and ballet companies, Berman has worked as an assistant conservator doing costume installations at museums. She said her 2009 stint at the De Young Museum in San Francisco was a special thrill.

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"I got to touch all the Yves Saint Laurent. Those are my famous people," she says. "I get crazy about old clothes."

Preserving such wearable relics is important to her trade, and she laments the "disposable" mentality of our society.

"People don't understand and don't get the training," she explains.  "Home ec (in high school) is gone. There's a real distancing, a real push to college. ... I actually think think that's one of the reasons our country is in such trouble. There's such a devaluing of the trades. We don't produce anything," Berman adds.

Berman's own 9-year-old daughter, however, is following in her footsteps, the ones off the beaten path.

"She's my teeny-tiny costume assistant," Berman says. "She comes to fittings and fabric stores with me. She meets lots of interesting and colorful people (of the theater). She wants to be an artist." 

Berman says is happy with the education her daughter is getting in the Novato school system, but of students in general today she says, "They don't see anything they've made. I would feel empty if I didn't have something to show for my work at the end of the day."

"I'm a tactile person," Berman admits. "My husband tried to buy me a Kindle, but I said 'no.'  I like to turn pages."

THE TEMPEST

WHEN: Through Sept. 25; 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays plus 4 p.m. Sundays.  See complete schedule, repertory performances and special events at www.marinshakespeare.org  

WHERE:  Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 1475 Grand Ave., Dominican University, San Rafael  

TICKETS:  $35 General; $30 Senior; $20 Youth

PAY YOUR AGE: Anyone age 21 to 34 can "Pay Your Age" at any Marin Shakespeare Company performance. Present photo ID.  Offer available at the door only.

BOX OFFICE:    415-499-4488  

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