MOORHEAD — Sewing machines whirring, scissors cutting, and enthusiastic discussion are a few of the sounds that come from the costume shop located in the basement of the Francis Frazier Comstock Theater. This is where the costumes for all characters in Concordia theater productions are curated and created. The mastermind behind the operation? Katie Curry-Dohn, Concordia’s theater department’s costume designer and shop manager.
Curry-Dohn has occupied her role at Concordia for 12 years after she graduated from Berry College in Georgia in 2011, where she studied acting and photography and worked in the costume shop for the theater department.
“I was going to take the, you know, costume construction class, and I went to the designer, and I said, ‘hi, I’m about to take your class, but I would love to work somewhere if you have a spot.‘ And she said, ‘do you know how to do anything?‘ And I said, ‘absolutely not.‘ And she hired me, and there we go. So, I try to bring that philosophy into our shop, yeah? Like, I can teach anyone to sew, so long as you have, you know, motivation and a desire to do it. I couldn’t sew a button until I was 19 and now look where we are,“ Curry-Dohn said.
Curry-Dohn was hired by her “old friend“ Christian Boy, the head of the Concordia theater department.
“I had never been to Minnesota, never been to the Midwest. But I had a couple of phone interviews, and I got the gig, and then the next week, I moved here in my car,“ Curry-Dohn said.
Curry-Dohn’s positions give her a plethora of responsibilities in the theater department. She often meets with show directors to discuss costuming, do fittings for cast members, sketch ideas, design the costumes, and help make them. Additionally, Curry-Dohn deems her “main job“ training student workers to get jobs in the theater once they graduate.
“Oh, I love the students. Yeah, I have such a fabulous team of kooks who have helped me get all our shows off the ground. Everyone is so eager to learn, and we have a really great time down here. There are very few days where I don’t want to go to work,“ Curry-Dohn said.
Over the summer, Curry-Dohn was awarded the Ole and Lucy Flaat Distinguished Service Award for her excellent work and mentorship in the costume shop.
“I think David (Wintersteen) nominated me, but then my colleagues had to submit letters of recommendation, I guess. And they got in touch with a bunch of former students who wrote nice things. Yeah, it was very touching. It was very unexpected,“ Curry-Dohn said.
This semester, Curry-Dohn has been working on costumes for Jen Silverman’s “Witch,“ which will be performed in the Lab Theater at 8 p.m. on Oct. 10-12 and at 2 p.m. on Oct. 13.
“Our tone for (“Witch”) is vaguely renaissance-y. In talks with David before we started designing it, he said he wanted it to look kind of like people going to the (Rennaissance) fair,“ Curry-Dohn said. “But the show is full of verbal anachronisms. So, we’re trying to bring that into the clothes so the audience, you know, goes, ‘what?‘”
After “Witch,” Concordia will present the musical “Oklahoma!,” which Curry-Dohn describes as a “monster“ in terms of costuming.
“There’s a cast of 40, I want to say. So that one we’ve already started working on. We already have, you know, two full racks of clothes. But once (“Witch”) is up on its feet, I’m going to start really digging into principal costumes and sourcing as many cowboy boots as I can find without completely destroying our budget,“ Curry-Dohn said.
Curry-Dohn has been an essential part of the Concordia theater department and will continue to do phenomenal work at the college.
“It’s nice to know that there are jobs in the world where you can make stuff with your hands and, like, still make a living, because most people don’t even know this is an option, like I did,“ Curry-Dohn said.
