Scene: Costume Exhibition Showcases Don Mangone's Work

Issue Date: 
December 9, 2013

 

Beautifully adorned shadows of plays gone by occupy the Cathedral of Learning’s 16th-floor lobby, home to Pitt’s Department of Theatre Arts. The small exhibition of vibrant gowns, dresses, and suits showcases the work of Pitt theater professor Don Mangone, who is retiring after 20 years as head costume designer for the department’s mainstage productions. With budgets that ranged from $500 to $6,000, Mangone worked closely with seamstresses and fabric cutters to create costumes for Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Learned Ladies, The Hudsucker Proxy,  and others. A career highlight? Pitt Repertory Theatre’s 2011 staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.  “I was especially pleased with the result—a darker, layered, collage effect, inspired by steampunk. The collaboration with the director and everyone else in the show was very dynamic,” said Mangone. The exhibition, open until Dec. 13, features costumes from 1995 to 2012.