This year our director,  Julane Sullivan,  has chosen the late 1800's Old West for our theme, to transport our audience to a rough and tumble world of comedy with just a hint of danger! Amongst the tumble weeds, wagon wheels, cattle skulls, and the dusty facade of a western town, there will be warm and colorful costumes full of whimsy and western fun! I wanted to bring costumes to the stage that would fit the western theme but would also enhance and complement the colorful personalities of the many characters in this show. I want the audience to be able to identify the players for who they are in the story, the roustabouts in Falstaff's 'wild west show' dressed in a fringed 'rough and tumble' look, the merry wives and their families all dressed in colorful rich stripes and matching tones to help identify who's with whom. For the color palette I drew from the colors of the dessert, shades of the dessert rocks and sand were my initial inspiration and the brilliant cactus flowers and deep sunsets as well. Of course we kept everything in a 'dusty ' tone to keep it from getting too loud as the dessert is more faded in its colors.  Julane wanted to see lots of coppers and warm hue's, she was on board with my main color choices of saffron yellows (a surprise since she is not a yellow fan! hehe) terra cotta and agate reds and oranges. After a trip to the fabric store we had more than enough inspiration for the costumes and I took to my sketch book to begin the process of designing the costumes for the show! I hope you enjoy looking through the designs for Merry Wives of Windsor as much as I enjoyed sketching them! Come out to the island this summer and see them in action! Ye-haw!"