About the designer
Thomas Gluodenis (he/him/his) is a Designer, Stitcher, and Stylist …
… based in New York City and currently freelancing with companies such as Royal Caribbean and previously worked with the College Light Opera Company in Falmouth, MA. He received his Bachelor of Music in Musical Theatre from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC in 2021. Although he started out as a performer, Thomas has transitioned into the field of Design and Production and now uses his acting training to inform his design process to ensure his costumes are an extension of the wearer and connected to the larger themes of the work or collection, all while being a statement on their own.
In his words
When I start to design a show and analyze a script, I break down the characters in the same way an actor would. I believe that clothing is an extension of a person’s nature, attitude, outlook on life, and how they want the world to perceive them—characters in a play are no different. But to do this, I must first understand each character in their entirety: how they interact with one another and with their environment, what their objective in the play is and how they achieve it while traversing any obstacles that may come up.
I should be able to answer each of Stanislavsky’s Seven Questions for each character at any given moment, and this is the largest influence that my training as an actor has on my design work.
Once I’ve established who they are, I can zoom out and consider the intrinsic themes of the work, any additional meanings or allegories that this specific rendition has decided to explore, the cultural and historical context, and the score. Then, and only then, do I have enough information to start filling out closets and deciding what they should wear each day. This way, I create costumes that are not only visually engaging to look at but also help tell the story.