Student has designs on life
With actors as his canvas and material as his paint, Phillip Lowe, a graduate student in costume design, creates award-winning pieces for productions at Utah State University.
Lowe spent the first 18 years of his life just over the mountains in Bear Lake, Idaho. He started his collegiate career at Ricks College and then transferred to Utah State University to earn his bachelor’s degree in acting and performing.
Despite a long history with the theater, it wasn’t until Lowe’s senior year that he got interested in the design aspect. Lowe started out in set design but changed his focus after getting a taste of costuming.
“With costume design you already have a body to work with,” Lowe said. “I find it enjoyable to make designs that fit not only the character and period of the show, but the actors and actresses body types as well.”
Lowe stayed on at USU after receiving his bachelor’s and is finishing his master’s degree in costume design this semester. Lowe said he chose to stay at USU and pursue costuming, in part, because of the theater department’s strong staff who are dedicated to education. Nancy Hills, the costume design professor, played a big role in supporting Lowe’s transition into costume design, he said.
“Phillip seemed like he had a tremendous understanding for what it takes to be a costume designer,” Hills said. “The ability to portray all of the different elements of a character, play, time period or even a poetic thought into a single costume.”
Lowe said the encouragement of the instructors is evident in the work and placement of the students who attend school here.
This year, Lowe won the Barbizon award offered by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. This is a top award in the area of theatrical design.
The Barbizon awards are offered to costume, set and lighting designers. According to The Kennedy Center’s Web site, www.kennedy-center.org, the designs are judged according to quality, effectiveness, originality and excellence in rendering techniques.
The awards are given in eight regions throughout the United States in alternating destinations. Next year the conference for region eight, which includes Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California, will be held at USU for the first time.
As the winner of this award Lowe was flown to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for an all-expense-paid opportunity to attend the design convention there and compete further with the winners of the other seven regions.
According to www.kennedy-center.org the purpose of the Barbizon awards is to give national recognition to outstanding students along with an opportunity for these students to exhibit their work at the Kennedy Center.
“At the convention I’ll be able to meet many of the top designers – not only those who design professionally, but those involved in education and this will hopefully allow me to make good professional contacts,” Lowe said before leaving for Washington, D.C.
Costume design is a tough field in which connections and experiences like the convention with the Kennedy Center are very valuable, Hills said.
After graduation, Lowe will travel to London where he will attend workshops in historical costumes at the University of North Hampton. While in London he will study and learn about regency, architecture and costuming, he said.
“I’m just really excited about graduating and moving on to new things.” Lowe said.