Interview with Valerie Ditchfield, Costume Designer for "Jardín de Sueños"

One of the wonderful artists who helped create the magical world of Jardín de Sueños is costume designer Valerie Ditchfield. Originally from Hawaii, she moved to Oregon in 1995 to attend Pacific University in Forest Grove and has been here ever since. A mother of two, (4 year old Giselle and 10 month old Jackson), Valerie also works as a substitute dance teacher. Last year she worked as the costume designer for Miracle’s production of Lazarillo and we look forward to seeing more of her work in the upcoming production of Oedipus el Rey where she is working as an assistant costume designer. Once again we bring you another Miracle Insider exclusive interview with an amazing Milagro artist! Enjoy!

Miracle Insider: What have you been working on?
Valerie: I am currently working with Miracle Theater as a costume designer for Jardín de Sueños but  I am also working on the design of competition costume for various dance studios in the Portland area.

When and how did you get involved with this line of work? 
I have always been into costume design.  I started out by making costumes (both dance and Halloween costumes) for myself, and people began asking me to design for them as well.  I learned mostly from watching and working with my mom who sewed costumes for us growing up.

What are your earliest memories of the theatre that might have hinted to the kind of work you do now?
When I was younger, I used to dance in The Nutcracker every year and my mom was the wardrobe director.  From early on, I remember sitting in the wardrobe room, watching my mom fix and fabricate costumes.

Have you always been a costume designer?
I have always loved costumes and dressing up, but it had always been a side job for me. Originally, I worked at Intel as a Research & Design technician, then at PCC as an office manager. Costume design has always been my passion, and I am very thankful I am able to do this on a more professional level.

When did you actually begin making costumes? 
Like I mentioned before, costumes have always been part of my life in some way. I have always loved designing costumes.  I absolutely love to look at designs and figure out for myself how to make them into a reality.  I got my real start doing this professionally about 5 years ago, when I began sewing competition dance costumes at various dance studios.

What is your favorite thing about the work you do?
I love expressing my creativity in the designs I create and seeing my rendition of a particular character turn to reality.  I like hunting for the materials (fabric and otherwise) to make the different aspects of the costumes, and I especially love using non-conventional items to fabricate costumes.

We know you have been working on the Jardín de Sueños production, can you tell us a bit about your work for this production?
This production is magical and mystical, with an armadillo, a cricket, a flower quinceñera princess, a magic red cape, a magical tree, a colorful bird and a cockroach, to name just a few of the enchanting elements.  In addition, there are also important "real-life" moments  that happen with the main character that eventually allow her [Cristina] to have a better understanding of her own family and of herself. This to me means that the costumes need to be both magical and real at the same time.  For this show I used a lot of unconventional costume materials:  paper mache, wood, toilet paper rolls, drain covers, vinyl, and actual tree branches.  It was fun!

What has been the most challenging part of making costumes for this production? What has been the most rewarding part of making costumes for this production?
This production was challenging to design for as we envisioned the costumes to be dream-like, yet they also needed to work in a real world.  They needed to be magical and functional.  The two costumes that were especially challenging were the armadillo and the bug.  There are magical moments that happen with the armadillo character that we had to work into the design of his shell.  And with the bug, well, we had to turn a person into an insect, with insect-like legs and such, while making sure the costume still functioned!
I very much enjoy designing for Jardín de Sueños.  The most rewarding part of making costumes for this production is seeing them in action.

Can you tell us a little about any upcoming projects after Jardín?
Following Jardín, I will be assisting Elizabeth Huffman with building costumes for the production of Oedipus el Rey opening in May. After that, I am planning on working on various princess projects, as requested by my daughter.