Rachael Butterfield Area of Study: Costume Technology (BFA)

I chose to attend The Theatre School at DePaul University because… of the conservatory program, the city of Chicago, and the strength of the costume program. The separation of the design and technology majors was one of the most important factors in my decision of colleges.

I chose my major because… of my love of sewing. I began sewing at the age of 11, discovered what beautiful garments history held at the age of 13, and from there began reading and researching. Theatre is one of the few places where historical garments are still constructed on a semi-regular basis, and even when I’m working on something that is modern or purely imagined, the process of creating something from nothing more than a sketch, 2-D, into a real, 3-D working garment, is exciting.

A faculty or staff member that has greatly influenced me is… Janet Messmer. She is my advisor as well as my professor, and she is supportive, informative and extremely knowledgeable. She knows my work and has high expectations of me, which drives me to work harder and become much better at what I do, far more than I would if I didn’t have those expectations. Something that surprised me about my experience or curriculum here is the way all our professors have us address them by their first names. I feel that it encourages a personal relationship with our professors, and as we learn from and work with the same people for four years, not a single quarter, knowing and trusting our professors and advisors is very important.

One thing that I’d like to say to students considering attending The Theatre School, or my peers in the industry, is…… that if you’re not sure, or if you decided maybe you think you might want to do theatre because you did one production in high school and had some fun, and now your parents are making you choose a major so it might as well be this, then this isn’t the place for you. If you love the process, the hard work, the starting from scratch and the indescribable satisfaction of seeing the final collaborative product on stage at the end, if you have the dedication to truly give it what it takes, not give up when it gets hard, and appreciate those moments when you break through the tough times, then you will thrive here.

My future goals include… for the moment, finishing the program and getting as much out of it as possible. I am unsure what I want to do when I graduate, but one of the greatest things about this program is the versatility of the training. I have so many options available to me when I leave TTS.