Costume Designer Speaks At Meeting

They are four simple words: Costumes by Jane Doe. You’ve seen them so often in theatre programs and in the movies title credit sequence. The time, energy and creative effort behind those four word were revealed to the members of The Community Club of Garden City and Hempstead on Wednesday, November 9th at the Garden City Casino.

Bettina P. Bierly is a 20 year veteran costume designer. For seven years, she was costume director for The New York City Opera Company, overseeing the wardrobe supervisors, crew and guest designers during the 23-week repertory season of 16 productions and on tour, as well. This often entailed 12 hour days, six days a week.

Ms. Bierly humorously related facts and anecdotes about costume design. All costumes are sewn to last and must be able to serve several different actors during the repertory season. All materials must be flame retardant and costumes are dry cleaned and/or washed after each performance. Parts of costumes are often recycled to conform with the time period of the next production.

After her marriage, Ms. Bierly confined her activities to the New Jersey area to be close to home and family. Working in regional theatres such as the McCarter and Paper Mill Playhouse opened a whole new world of costume design. Since many of the play presented in regional theaters are original, Ms. Bierly had to confer with the authors, directors and set designers to determine how the costumes would fit into the production.

The lecture was filled with many amusing backstage stories. Ms. Bierly held up the costumes she had brought along with her and the audience tried to guess the play or opera in which the had been used.

Ms. Bierly is the daughter of Sally and George Papoulas of Garden City.

Bea Mercadante was in charge of arrangements. Door greeters were Lillian LaPlac and Genevieve Forman. Pourers of the day were Julia Fehler and Sheila Birkenstock. Sally Papoulas was in charge of decorations, which naturally featured many costume sketches and theatrical programs. Hospitality was taken care of by Jennie Catania, Gertrude Krupen, Marie Barolotta and Ida Catania.