Don't Miss: 'After a Fashion': How identity is created through fashion

The Department of Theatre and Drama presents "After a Fashion," a new work developed by acclaimed performer and School of Art and Design Prof. Holly Hughes.

The play will be performed at the Trueblood Theatre in the Frieze Building. Performances are 8 p.m. March 27-29 and April 3-5, and 2 p.m. March 30 and April 6. Tickets are $15 general admission, $8 for students with ID. Tickets are available at the Michigan League ticket office or by phone at (734) 764-2538.

Courtesy SoAD

Hughes continues to create works that are rich with insightful, witty, often acerbic social commentary. Created in collaboration with the show's U-M student cast, Hughes says "After a Fashion" is "a look at how identity is created through fashion." Hughes contends this is a natural subject for a theatrical treatment. "Pulling a look together is a kind of performance," she says. "Your audience is the people around you, and your clothes communicate just as if you were an actor on stage."

Through workshop-style brainstorming sessions and improvisation, Hughes and the performers tried to ask and answer as many questions as they could about the role fashion plays in our culture: "What do clothes say about a person?" "What do they say about that person's body image?" "How do people use their clothes to help show off or hide parts of their bodies?" "What does clothing say about its wearer's interests, social standing, or current activities?" Additional time also was spent discussing brands versus identities, clothing as it relates to gender and race, and how music shapes our fashions.

Music plays an additional role in the play by acting as the framework around which many of the sketches are constructed. "Much of the material that was generated by the cast was best expressed through music," Hughes says. "The play verges on [being] an a cappella concert."

She provides a framework for the production by focusing on topics including when you start to dress yourself, bad hair days, the peculiarities of clothing merchants, shopping and looking in a mirror.

Joel Aalberts,
University Productions

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