The stars of a show aren't always the singers and actors on the stage. Often it includes the people behind the scenes in the creative trades.
They, too, rise to various levels of success in their professions.
High on the Canadian costuming list is Jeff Chief, called in by Theatre Northwest to keep the cast of Hedda Noir in stitches oh so literally.
When you're setting your play in a particular period and a particular socioeconomic space, the wardrobe has to be precise. For this play it's the 1930s, the characters are upper crust, and it's a cinematic "film noir" atmosphere. It's enough to make a mad fabric scientist cackle with delight.
"I'm staying with a family here in Prince George while I'm working on this show, and I'll go down into their basement to do most of my work starting in the afternoon. I'll look at the clock and suddenly it's 11 o'clock at night and I haven't eaten or looked outside or anything, in hours and hours," he said.
"As long as I'm working with my hands, building, creating, sewing, then I'm happy just getting my hands into it. It's not even about the thing I'm making; it is the work itself."
He needed to somehow make buffalo head costumes for a live-action scene at the opening ceremonies of the Indigenous Summer Games held in Regina on the Roughriders' football field.
To make them really pop, and to withstand the weather possibilities, Chief made the bison mane with mylar tape - the stuff that cassettes have inside them. It blew wildly in the wind, shimmered in the sunshine, repelled the rain, and gave the ancient buffalo motif a splash of modern technology.
He has been called on to do creative clothing like that for shows and events at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, for the Aboriginal Music Awards, for the Indspire Awards, Theatre Calgary, Western Canada Theatre, and at the Stratford Festival.
"You get busy and don't have time to really take it all in, sometimes, but I remember at Stratford passing by Christopher Plummer and he just turned my way as we went past each other, and he gave me a long second look. I guess it was because I'm among very few men on our team there in our department so I stood out a bit, and also that I'm clearly Indigenous. I get noticed, even by someone like Christopher Plummer."
This is his second time in Prince George working for TNW. When he was the costumer for the play Dreary And Izzy a couple of years ago, some of the required 1970s clothing was unavailable anywhere, so Chief decided to just make it himself. The garments he whipped up impressed TNW artistic director Jack Grinhaus who hired him when it was time to do the world premiere of his own script, Hedda Noir.
When Hedda's opulent silk negligee flutters like a ghostly veil behind actor Lauren Brotman as she strides across the parlour, that is all Chief's doing, handmade and all original.
"I've been sewing since I was a kid," he said, which is not at all the normal course of action for a Plains Cree kid from Onion Lake. It wasn't an easy way to spend a boyhood, but he was determined. First Chief took some fashion designing courses, that led to costume courses specifically for theatre, he designed formal wear for awhile, but his excitement always burned for the live stage, not the suit and dress shop.
It has allowed him to travel widely, design a wide variety of costumes and clothing, and keep a constant sense of freshness in his life.
"I was really looking forward to coming back to Prince George. I had such a great time the last time I was here, and this play was a real challenge for me. I loved this play," he said.
Next for Chief is back home in Saskatoon where famed drama company Persephone Theatre has him engaged with building costumes for their upcoming performance of Pride And Prejudice, another intense period piece for the wardrobe department.
"I want to stay home in Saskatoon a bit more. I've been on the road a lot lately," he said. "I have a partner there who teaches at the University of Saskatchewan so I want to see more of him. I want to spend more time with family. I get home to Onion Lake a couple of times a year but I'd like it to be more. They try to get me to visit with kids when I'm there to show them what I do and maybe inspire them to reach for interesting goals and dreams like I did. They're proud of me, and I want to return the honour."
He loves to adorn formal wear and casual clothes with aboriginal touches, so that's a professional ambition he wants to apply himself to, as well as the work he will always be interested in in theatre.
When audiences see the sharply dressed characters in Hedda Noir, both for the sake of fashion and supporting the script's themes, it's easy to get wrapped up in Chief's talents.
