Sabrina Notarfancisco is at work making costumes for the upcoming show The Tempest, which opens later this month.
“We’re taking a very interesting approach this time. It’s not set in stone yet, but our director, Brian Jennings, is sort of setting The Tempest in Africa, so he’s removed all the magic and is focusing on colonialism. We’re working with masks for natives, print fabrics, trying to incorporate tribal island clothing.”
Miss Notarfrancisco has been designing costumes for the Connecticut College theater department since 2004, but she’s been interested in theatrical production longer than that.
“When I was growing up in Germany, I had a German mom and an American dad,” she said. “My mom used to take me to plays performed at the U.S. military base, all kinds of German theater. She involved me with things that were arts-oriented and fun.”
Studying at the John F. Kennedy High School in Berlin from kindergarten through twelfth grade, Notarfrancisco graduated the same year the Berlin Wall was taken down.
In high school, she participated in theater, as a performer and also behind the scenes.
She began college her first semester in Munich, Germany, but when her roommate convinced her to move to school in Florida with her, she decided to take the leap.
Moving to Orlando, Notarfrancisco graduated with her Bachelor’s from the University of Central Florida. It was not until she attended graduate school at Missouri State University when she realized that her destiny was in costume design.
“I was more interested in behind-the-scenes work, but I never thought that costume design was what I wanted to do. At first I thought it was about making big decisions about the looks, but when I took a costume history class, it all changed.”
After being bitten by the costume-design bug, she went on to study at the University of Connecticut to procure her Master in Fine Arts. After this accomplishment, she went on to work free-lance at local places such as University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut Summer Repertoire, and other local places.
When director Brian Jennings worked with her in Hartford, he informed her of an open spot in the Connecticut College Theater Department.
“The main job of a costume designer is to successfully reveal characters,” said Sabrina. “People often confuse it with fashion design, which is also an art form, but the point of costume design is to help the audience understand who the character is and where their journey is going to take them.”
Designing hit shows for this department over the years, Notarfrancisco has many favorites that she has worked on, such as her costumes in The Increased Difficulty of Concentration and last year’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, both of which were directed by students.
While she works away in her shop in Palmer, make sure to check out the upcoming main stage productions, including The Tempest and Doubt, both of which will feature her design work. The Tempest runs October 22-25 and Doubt runs November 19-22.
