A chat with theatrical costume designer William Ivey Long

William Ivey Long should be the poster child for North Carolinians who become entertainment giants. After spending his early years in Raleigh with an amphitheater for a playground and his summers working in Manteo on “The Lost Colony,” he eventually landed in New York City and soon became one of the most awarded theatrical costume designers.

Of his nearly 70 Broadway shows since 1978, Long has earned 15 Tony Award nominations and won six, including for “The Producers” and “Hairspray.” Triangle audiences can witness Long’s talents in the current tour of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway revival of “Cabaret.” It opens Tuesday at the Durham Performing Arts Center for eight performances.

In a recent call from Toronto (where’s he working on a TV version of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”), Long talked about his early North Carolina days, his circuitous route to becoming a costumer and the background of his “Cabaret” designs. Here are edited excerpts of that conversation:

Q: How did you come to live at Raleigh Little Theatre?

A: After I was born in 1947, my father’s first job was technical director at RLT. It was hard to find housing after the war, so we were allowed to live in a dressing room building of the RLT amphitheater for 3 1/2 years. (Long will be in Raleigh May 17 for the City Council’s announcement of a plaque being placed on the dressing room building in his honor.)

Q: What are your memories of that time?

A: The amphitheater stage was our front yard and when there were productions, I thought people were just coming over to visit. I played in the rose garden and thought everyone grew up in one.

Q: What about your days with “The Lost Colony”?

A: Every summer, my whole family would go to Manteo to work on the show. I was a colonist boy when I was 8 and then moved on to working the technical aspects. It’s still the main constant in my life. I’m entering my 45th season, this year as production designer.

Q: What was your theatrical training?

A: I went to college in the rebellious 1960s, and because theater was the family business, I didn’t want to go into it. I ended up getting an art history graduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill. While there, I lived with N.C. author Betty Smith, a friend of my parents and a Yale drama school graduate, who encouraged me to apply there.

Q: How did you become a costume designer?

A: After earning a set design degree from Yale, I moved to New York City and lived in the Chelsea Hotel for five years. All that glam rock craziness was happening around me, but that was just what I wanted because I was a little Southern boy! I became apprenticed to couturier Charles James, but I still didn’t know what I wanted to do.

Q: How did you end up designing costumes for Broadway?

A: My first Broadway show was “The Inspector General.” The director asked his set designer to find somebody to do costumes. The set designer was a Yale friend and got me the job. I owe all my work to having the right friend in the right place at the right time.

Q: What was the inspiration for your “Cabaret” revival designs?

A: I researched the paintings of Otto Dix and Egan Schiele created during the Weimar Republic, from which I’ve incorporated direct images. Then I read all the Christopher Isherwood Berlin diaries. I based my designs on actual vintage clothing, some of which I use in the show.

Q: Did you make any changes for this current tour?

A: The tour combines my designs from the 1998 and the 2014 revivals. The tour principals came to my studio for individual fittings to make them feel they’d created their own look. The costumes must seem to be pathetic, wornout clothes ready to disintegrate – and it takes a lot of technical expertise to maintain that illusion!

This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 6:34 AM with the headline "A chat with theatrical costume designer William Ivey Long."