GIANNA BURLINI
EMILY K. KIRK
Costume Designer
BA/BS Theatre Design and Technology
Minor in Anthropology
Emily is a current Ball State student and former IUPUI student, with an education in both theatre and media arts. She is studying to be costume designer and technician, and also has experience in wide variety of other design disciplines - including sound mixing, screenwriting, web design. She views theatre as a steppingstone for her to enter into a career in arts and entertainment, and she enjoys the aspects of bringing creative concepts to life through the medium of costumes. She has worked on Ball State University's productions of The Nutcracker, Gypsy, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and Intertextuality.
Why did I choose my area of focus?
I’ve always had an affinity for costumes, and I have a particular interest in historical costume design. When I was little, I loved to watch old movies - especially movie musicals like Hello Dolly. I would play dress up while watching them, building outfits that would fit the time, place, and feeling of the movie I was watching. And, even as young as 8, I would constantly comment on the historical accuracy of all the costumes. I’ve always been interested in storytelling thorough characters and world building. I think that costumes truly capture both of these elements and are a fantastic way to build up and express the characters and world of a work.
A Random Fact About Me
I originally went to Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis, where I majored in Media Arts and Science. Media Arts and Science is the study of media creation, public/personal interactions with and though media, and the historical and cultural significance of various media in a variety of media disciplines. This allowed me to gain experience in wide variety of other design disciplines including sound mixing, screenwriting, web design, and animation/storyboarding. I would love to have the opportunity to fuse my love of character creation through both animation and costume design. I also have a minor in Anthropology which has helped me to expand my cultural and historical knowledge and apply it costume design. It has given me the tools to understand and incorporate these contexts to enhance my designs.
How did I adjust to Covid?
During this year due to Covid-19, the show I was working on for the spring semester, a dance piece called Intertextuality, was cancelled. However, the theatre department gave us the opportunity to pick up the show where we left off in the fall, with significant adjustments to how it was to be carried out in order to follow safety guidelines. This radically changed how the show was going to be designed and produced, including reducing the in-person interactions with the dancers and choreographers to dress rehearsals only. These changes also came with a promotion for me from assistant designer to student co-designer, as the previous student co-designer graduated. One of the biggest hurdles to my work co-designing the costumes for the show was, not only adjusting to my new role as a designer, but the fact that as I’m high risk for coronavirus I was unable to meet with the dancers even during the dress rehearsals. This was challenging because I had to do every step of the process remotely, even when the other people I was working with were able to do things in person, which is incredibly difficult when doing costumes because its normally very hands on. In order to work around this challenge, I had to get creative with the way I partnered and communicated with the dancers and the rest of the production staff. To solve this problem, I utilized web-conferencing, emails, and calls/texts to keep the schedule moving forward and uphold my responsibilities to the production.