Week of 10/7
Fordham Theatre’s 2024-25 mainstage year is themed “Joy and Subversion: Revel and Revolt, describing each show as having “a deep resonance within our community, engaging with the world around us, and offers exciting opportunities for creative risk and play.” Starting this year of performances is the play by Karen Zacarias, Sins of Sor Juana, the tale of legendary Mexican poet Juana Inés de la Cruz, played by sophomore acting concentration Isabelle Diaz. We sat down with her and a few other Sins of Sor Juana team members to ask questions about how the process has been.
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Amy Orner ‘25 is a senior customer design concentration here at Fordham. While she is beginning to get ready to showcase her four years at Fordham for Senior Showcase, she also has the daunting task of being the lead costume designer for this year’s first mainstage production! I was very impressed with how deeply intricate each detail of the costumes was when asked about it.
What inspired the costumes for this show?
“Like any costume design, I always start looking at the historical contents of the time and the place that we are in. Specifically, this show is about real people who existed in a real time and in real places. For this show, we took these real ideas and made them a little more abstract while still trying to stay true to who these people were.”
Watch full interview with lead costume designer, Amy Orner.
Maia Kraskouskas ‘26 is a junior performance concentration,
and she has been working on constructing the set as a work-study.
What is your biggest challenge while building the set so far?
“I would say I’ve had to use the saw a lot and make sure everything is precise…This set specifically shows how many arches there are. The arches were hard to build, and each one took a few hours on its own because of how big they were…I think precision for this set specifically has been the biggest challenge.
Ebony Burton has an MFA in Design for Stage and Film from NYU Tisch and is the lead lighting designer. With Burton having worked professionally since 2018, I was excited to pick her brain on the importance of lighting design within a production.
What is one thing about lighting design that most people might not realize but plays a crucial role in the show?
“ I think a lot of people may not realize how lighting affects them on a subconscious level. So, if you don’t notice that something is changing, you don’t notice a color or the angle; it affects how you perceive what’s happening. So, a heavy shadow will make someone look creepy or stern, or whatever it may be, whereas a bright front light will make them look light and make the scene feel more comedic. So I think part of it just manipulates those ideas in the audience.”
Is there one part in the show that people might miss but you find essential?
“I think that the poetry in the piece itself is great, and there are some moments when Sor Juana performs her poems. I think they are really beautiful and have powerful moments. Those are my favorite moments, and I think people will really like them too.”
Are you registered to vote yet?
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