1 00:00:00,020 --> 00:00:04,060 You can't, like, punch things in a computer and 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:08,110 have a hat pop out. 3 00:00:08,130 --> 00:00:12,160 You know, it has to be done by hand. 4 00:00:12,180 --> 00:00:16,260 And so artisans who work in the theatre, like 5 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:20,410 we train here at Penn State, are valuable everywhere. 6 00:00:20,430 --> 00:00:24,450 Our kids go right into the industry because we're teaching them 7 00:00:24,470 --> 00:00:28,570 these skills that people need desperately, which is kind of wonderful. 8 00:00:28,590 --> 00:00:32,750 This past summer 9 00:00:32,770 --> 00:00:36,840 we didn't have a first year group of grad students and we decided 10 00:00:36,860 --> 00:00:41,010 we weren't going to London for one year, so I had like one year that I could do this. 11 00:00:41,030 --> 00:00:45,190 There was only once chance. 12 00:00:45,210 --> 00:00:49,280 And so I started in August making inquiries of the university of Bournemouth, and I said, 13 00:00:49,300 --> 00:00:53,400 "I have these skills and I've made a lot of hats, but we're doing a production of Titanic 14 00:00:53,420 --> 00:00:57,570 and I would like to learn bigger hats, and things that 15 00:00:57,590 --> 00:01:01,650 would be more of the period of 1910, which I've never done." 16 00:01:01,670 --> 00:01:05,710 I brag about it all the time here because for two weeks I got to do one thing only. 17 00:01:05,730 --> 00:01:09,780 and sit at a table for 10 hours a day making hats, and just 18 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:13,910 really concentrate on learning a new skill, which was really fantastic. 19 00:01:13,930 --> 00:01:17,960 It's almost like they want to be born and have their own 20 00:01:17,980 --> 00:01:22,000 ideas about what they want to be. Even hats that I start, they don't necessarily end up 21 00:01:22,020 --> 00:01:26,130 being what I thought they were when I started when they finish. 22 00:01:26,150 --> 00:01:30,150 They had these purple velvet flowers which I thought were really fabulous, so I thought, "ok, 23 00:01:30,170 --> 00:01:34,250 I'm going to do something in the purple range." And then in one of the fabric stores in Shepherd's Bush I found 24 00:01:34,270 --> 00:01:38,290 this fabulous black and purple stripe that became the 25 00:01:38,310 --> 00:01:42,370 bow and the edging on this, and then we had to find another fabric and we thought this went like really 26 00:01:42,390 --> 00:01:46,560 nicely with it. 27 00:01:46,580 --> 00:01:50,610 My parents were both teachers, and so 28 00:01:50,630 --> 00:01:54,720 I was that kid that was in the library that they'd say, "why don't you go out on the playground?" 29 00:01:54,740 --> 00:01:58,730 And I was so happy in the world of books and whatever, and sometimes I'll get a job and 30 00:01:58,750 --> 00:02:02,860 I literally skip to the library, cause like, oh my god, I'm going to go today and research 31 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,890 Vivien Leigh today, and I was like the happiest kid on the planet that day. 32 00:02:06,910 --> 00:02:10,990 And so history is huge. 33 00:02:11,010 --> 00:02:15,020 I have to be sort of knowledgeable about psychology, and relationships, and 34 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:19,160 history, and art history, and world history. 35 00:02:19,180 --> 00:02:23,330 And you have to have kind of a knowledge of all of these things to understand 36 00:02:23,350 --> 00:02:27,380 the period of what we're doing. 37 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:31,490 We have people in my department who make these beautiful silk dresses, these beautiful delicate things. 38 00:02:31,510 --> 00:02:35,670 I'm much more like I get to roll up my sleeves and muscle this stuff into place, 39 00:02:35,690 --> 00:02:39,750 fight it into place and put a wire in it, and make this really solid thing that will last through the run of a show. 40 00:02:39,770 --> 00:02:43,780 I like that better, actually. I could make a dress, it wouldn't be pretty and there would be a 41 00:02:43,800 --> 00:03:06,133 lot of cursing involved, but this I love.