CREATING ART IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD:
Pivoting, Reinvention, and Sustainability
Wednesday, November 15
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Pope Auditiorium
On Wednesday, November 15, 2022 from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM, Fordham Theatre hosted an all-program roundtable that featured award-winning costume designers Dede Ayite, David Zinn, and Fabio Tablini. The designers discussed their artistic responses to the pandemic and the new ways in which they are practicing their art. The panel investigated the role artists can play during challenging times and dreamt about what this moment of transformation might mean for the future of our field.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
DEDE AYITE (she/her/hers) is a costume designer whose Broadway credits include A Soldier’s Play, Slave Play, American Son, and Children of a Lesser God. Select Off-Broadway credits include Secret Life of Bees, FireFlies, Marie and Rosetta, Tell Hector I Miss Him (Atlantic); By The Way, Meet Vera Stark, JHAT (Signature); BLKS, Collective Rage…, School Girls… (MCC); Slave Play (NYTW); Sugar in Our Wounds (MTC); If Pretty Hurts…, Mankind, Bella: An American Tall Tale (Playwrights Horizons); The Royale (Lincoln Center); Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout); and brownsville song [b-side} for tray] (LCT3). Regionally, Ayite’s works has appeared at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Williamstown Theatre Festival; Steppenwolf; American Repertory Theater, Denver Center; California Shakespeare; La Jolla Playhouse; Berkeley Repertory; Baltimore Center Stage; Arena Stage; Cleveland Playhouse; Signature Theatre; and McCarter Theatre, Hartford Stage. She has worked in television with Netflix, Comedy Central, and FOX Shortcoms. Ayite earned her MFA at the Yale School of Drama and has received an Obie, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, and Jeff Awards, along with four Drama Desk Nominations.
FABIO TOBLINI | Broadway: Romeo and Juliet. Off-Broadway: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (original production); Bat Boy: the Musical; Pip’s Island. Regional: The Comedy of Errors; Kiss Me, Kate; Hamlet; A Song at Twilight (Hartford Stage); Tartuffe (Resident Ensemble Players); A Flea in Her Ear, The Royal Family (American Players Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, My Fair Lady, HMS Pinafore (Guthrie Theater); The Elephant Man (Alley Theatre); Bell, Book and Candle (Long Wharf Theatre); Carnival (Goodspeed Musicals); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Baltimore Center Stage); The Pleasure of His Company, Sammy (The Old Globe Theatre). Opera: L’impresario, Le Rossignol (Santa Fe Opera); The Kiss (Opera Theatre of St. Louis); Il Sogno di Scipione (Gotham Chamber Opera); Maria (Wexford Opera Festival); La Voix Humaine, Tales of Hoffmann (Nationale Reisopera); Zar und Zimmermann (Tiroler Landestheater); Macbeth (Portland Opera). Dance: The Nutcracker (Ballet Arizona). Awards: Craig Noel Awards nomination (Kiss Me, Kate); Connecticut Critics Award (The Tempest, Kiss Me Kate); TDF Irene Sharif Young Master Award, Lucille Lortel nomination (Bat Boy: the Musical). Education: Istituto Marangoni (Milano, Italy) Parsons School of Design.
DAVID ZINN is a set and costume designer. On Broadway he’s designed scenery for KIMBERLY AKIMBO, FUNNY GIRL, THE MINUTES, DIANA, TORCH SONG, and THE HUMANS; scenery and costumes for the SPONGEBOB MUSICAL, FUN HOME, CHOIR BOY, AMELIE, and THE LAST SHIP; and costumes for ALMOST FAMOUS, A DOLL’S HOUSE PART 2, AIRLINE HIGHWAY, BENGAL TIGER…, OTHER DESERT CITIES, THE VIBRATOR PLAY and XANADU. Off-Broadway he’s designed at the Public Theater, Playwright’s Horizons, Manhattan Theater Club, New York Theater Workshop, Lincoln Center, MCC, 2d Stage, Elevator Repair Service, and Target Margin. He’s also designed for A.C.T. in San Francisco, ACT Seattle, A.R.T., Berkeley Rep, The Guthrie, The Old Globe, CTG, La Jolla Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera and Los Angeles Opera. Overseas he’s designed at the National, Young Vic, and The Hampstead (UK); Berlin Staatsoper and Theater Basel. He’s received Tony, Drama Desk, Hewes and Obie awards for his work. www.mrdavidzinn.work IG@misterdavidzinn