Written by Emma Donoghue

Directed by Tracy Cameron Francis

At its face, Kissing the Witch is a series of fairy tales retold from the perspective of the women who are branded as “witches” for whatever reason they deviate from social norms, the end result is an episodic, queer, feminist investigation of agency and gender expectations. Director Tracy Cameron Francis sought to create an indeterminate world where these four women have been telling and retelling and retelling their stories for an age (or more). That feeling of repetition and visuals of age and decaying text and paper, as these tales are spun through a series of games of telephone over the centuries, featured heavily in my early design research.

My goal was to create a slightly androgynous standard “uniform” for all the actors in a tight and dingy color pallet to fit into this slightly dystopian and liminal world. One of the most important parts of this piece was the pacing, and it was essential that the costumes were able to seamlessly translate between individual stories and roles, without muddying the action with costume changes. With each actor only in one “look”, I was able to dig into the minutia of fit and silhouette, movement was hugely important. I spent a significant amount of time dyeing and and staining the garments in order to create a harmonious, lived in, and dimensional final product.