Petar - Croatia

The Winter’s Tale was a great and very educational experience during which I was supervised and mentored by Shirin Laghai. Excitingly I accepted the costume designer position which included designing and producing around 20 costumes in a very short time period and within a limited budget.

 

From the first days of my involvement in the project, Shirin treated me as an adult and a professional. I got full creative freedom and I was trusted with my creative decisions. During the first week, Shirin gave me a thorough description of all characters and a general overview of the play, information about the budget, and guidelines how to follow the theme and mood of the play. Always taking into consideration my opinions and concept, Shirin provided me with constructive feedback at every stage of the process which resulted in the great correlation between costumes and concept of the play.

 

Besides ensuring that all materials come on time and that I was not missing anything, she managed to provide me with appropriate space, an atelier, where I could sew and finish costumes without being disturbed. That really showed me her appreciation and respect for work that I was doing. She showed great management and organizational skills, keeping everything under control and ensuring that my costume fittings happened on time, that there was enough time for costume rehearsals, and that opening night ran smoothly.

 

During the whole project, Shirin kept a very professional and supportive approach which made me feel like a real professional, which eventually stimulated me to work more and make costumes even better. Furthermore, she taught me how to handle budgets, deadlines, and other aspects involved in such productions. She gave me insight into the theatre world, and she supported me and allowed me to create something that I’m very proud of.