ZOE MORSETTE: Zoe Morsette and I do special effects properties and costumes,
ZOE MORSETTE: dimensional costumes for Broadway, television, and film.
SPEAKER: What I love about the work that I do is that it's all problem
SPEAKER: solving, everything you're doing is really a prototype.
SPEAKER: Something might have been done similar to what you're doing, but
SPEAKER: never exactly the same as what you're doing.
SPEAKER: And that's why you have to create it from scratch, have to create
SPEAKER: patterns, have to do markets.
SPEAKER: And for me, that's really the fun part of it.
SPEAKER: It's almost anticlimactic when you finish and deliver it because
SPEAKER: all of a sudden it's just done and it goes out the door.
SPEAKER: But I actually like the process a lot.
SPEAKER: And you discover new techniques
SPEAKER: when you're doing that. A lot of things that I do now, I've just
SPEAKER: learned over the years by trial and error and also from working
SPEAKER: with other people, the collaboration can be really fun, although
SPEAKER: most of the time I'm working alone now.
SPEAKER: I did work in big studios when I was younger, which is where I
SPEAKER: learned a lot of my techniques, actually.
SPEAKER: The piece that I'm actually best known for is the Homeless Statue
SPEAKER: of Liberty for the New York Cares Coat Drive.
SPEAKER: It's a poster as well as a commercial.
SPEAKER: And I was brought into a special effects model making
SPEAKER: shop that I did a lot of freelance work for.
SPEAKER: And they needed a sculpture of a cold,
SPEAKER: shivering statue that could be used
SPEAKER: for a photo shoot for a poster.
SPEAKER: And this was to collect coats for the homeless.
SPEAKER: But then two weeks later, they were going to shoot a commercial and
SPEAKER: they had to put an actor in it.
SPEAKER: So I had to figure out how to make it where
SPEAKER: everything could come apart in units and go on to a human being.
SPEAKER: So for the photo shoot, I actually use a mannequin
SPEAKER: hands and feet and then we just remove those
SPEAKER: and I use a dummy on the inside.
SPEAKER: And then we took all of that apart and put the costume on to a
SPEAKER: live actor. And we shot it right here in New York in Silver
SPEAKER: Cup Studios. And it's a very popular ad, actually, and they've been
SPEAKER: running it since 1991.
SPEAKER: Research is a huge part of it.
SPEAKER: Thank God for the Internet. Back in the day, we used to actually go
SPEAKER: to the library and the picture collection at Lincoln Center, which
SPEAKER: was wonderful, but of course time consuming.
SPEAKER: I fell into props in a way I always like making
SPEAKER: things as a kid. I was very good in science and math
SPEAKER: and I test very high in spatial relationships, which is
SPEAKER: what helps you to sculpt.
SPEAKER: But I actually started out in dance and theater and I have a degree
SPEAKER: in dance and theater and I was a choreographer,
SPEAKER: but I was injured coming out of school and wasn't really going
SPEAKER: to continue dancing.
SPEAKER: I was also very tall, which in the early 70s wouldn't
SPEAKER: have gotten me a job.
SPEAKER: But I always like to make things.
SPEAKER: And as a kid, my mom was an art teacher and let us do
SPEAKER: projects all the time in the house.
SPEAKER: And so it kind of went on from there.
SPEAKER: And when I first got to New York, a friend from school
SPEAKER: was working at Radio City.
SPEAKER: He was building the headdresses for the rockets, and
SPEAKER: I told him if they ever needed extra help, especially with the
SPEAKER: Christmas show coming up, that I would love to work there.
SPEAKER: And they did indeed hire me.
SPEAKER: I ended up there for two years and I learned how to do theatrical
SPEAKER: millinery, which is very different from street wear, which we call
SPEAKER: model millenary. Oh, everything is wired with steel.
SPEAKER: It has double buckram layers, everything's hand
SPEAKER: stitched down, even the feathers.
SPEAKER: And so I really learned great construction tips there.
SPEAKER: And then I went on and ended up getting hired into other studios
SPEAKER: that had a big crew and they would do the whole
SPEAKER: Broadway shows, what we call a Broadway package.
SPEAKER: Where you doing every single prop in the show, which could be,
SPEAKER: you know, a few hundred pieces.
SPEAKER: When I worked at Mickey Rollins in Brooklyn back in the 80s,
SPEAKER: we did the first iteration
SPEAKER: of– we did Les Miserebles, we did Phantom,
SPEAKER: we did a lot of shows, but you did anything from a distressed
SPEAKER: leather shoulder bag to a dead body,
SPEAKER: which was sort of my specialty then.
SPEAKER: I actually was sort of the dead body lady of Broadway for quite a
SPEAKER: while. I did about 40 of them.
SPEAKER: Over the years, the technology has changed
SPEAKER: the business a lot. For instance, now you have digital
SPEAKER: painting, so not everything is hand painted and
SPEAKER: now you have 3D printing.
SPEAKER: So now people are actually using 3D printers to do things.
SPEAKER: I personally have not gotten into that because at this point in my
SPEAKER: career it's a little difficult
SPEAKER: because kids coming up are weaned on computers and people
SPEAKER: of my generation were not.
SPEAKER: So there's no way I can really compete with people who are doing
SPEAKER: things in the computer. And actually, I don't want to sit at a desk
SPEAKER: all day programing. I would rather do things by hand.
SPEAKER: And actually, it's almost to my benefit because
SPEAKER: so few people know how to work with their hands anymore that
SPEAKER: my skills are in demand.
SPEAKER: If you want to do props in the theatre, I really recommend that you
SPEAKER: go through a good program at a good school.
SPEAKER: There are certain schools in the country that actually have courses
SPEAKER: and props.
SPEAKER: Not very many, but you're better off if you can do that.
SPEAKER: You really need to learn how to sew.
SPEAKER: You need to learn how to sculpt.
SPEAKER: You need a background in art history and you need to like doing
SPEAKER: research.
SPEAKER: But I really recommend going through a very good theatre program
SPEAKER: where you're doing hands on because it's not something that you can
SPEAKER: just pick up on the outside.
SPEAKER: I think theatre background is good.
SPEAKER: Also, if you do a theatre major or
SPEAKER: minor, you have to learn how to dissect
SPEAKER: a play.
SPEAKER: And if you don't know how to read a play, you'd you know,
SPEAKER: you really don't know what the props are for.
SPEAKER: They have to keep the show moving.
SPEAKER: They have to add to it and not distract from it.
SPEAKER: And if you really don't know anything about theatre, you may not get
SPEAKER: that. And I find that some of the people who work
SPEAKER: in the theatre, like just running the show, some of them don't have
SPEAKER: that background and they really don't get it.
SPEAKER: And I find people who have the theatre background are much
SPEAKER: more in tune with the actual show.
SPEAKER: And it shows in the results, you know, of the pieces
SPEAKER: they build.
SPEAKER: These are flasks that I do for Hamilton and obviously
SPEAKER: you buy a new flask. It's got a screwtop, but in the
SPEAKER: 1700s, they didn't have screw tops.
SPEAKER: So that's why I had to use the dremel and cut
SPEAKER: off this piece here.
SPEAKER: But what's nice is that I leave this attachment
SPEAKER: here, which is metal, and it gives me something to attach the cord
SPEAKER: to.
SPEAKER: Then I have to grind off the threads because
SPEAKER: again you wouldn't have threads.
SPEAKER: And even though this is not going to be seen from the house, from the
SPEAKER: audience, the actors see it.
SPEAKER: And a lot of what we do is actually for the actors, when I have to
SPEAKER: change dates on a magazine or dates
SPEAKER: on anything, it is only for the actor because no one in
SPEAKER: the house will ever see it.
SPEAKER: But it's I think it helps them keep in character, I think especially
SPEAKER: for a period piece.
SPEAKER: So I grind the threads off so it ends up
SPEAKER: smooth like this one.
SPEAKER: And then I've made a pattern to fit
SPEAKER: the pieces of leather that are glued on to here.
SPEAKER: I use a contact adhesive which I brush on to the steel
SPEAKER: and I brush onto the leather and then I wrap the piece
SPEAKER: very tightly and then I actually use
SPEAKER: some–this is actually a nice woven shoelace, which is really
SPEAKER: strong, and I drill a hole into my little artificial
SPEAKER: cork. A real cork at this scale would
SPEAKER: be very crumbly, but the artificial wine corks are very, very
SPEAKER: dense. That's why I sculpt it down and then just recolor it like it's
SPEAKER: a little cork with a magic marker.
SPEAKER: And then when I drill the hole out, then I can I just hot glue
SPEAKER: the cord into that and I glue and stitch
SPEAKER: it to that little bit of metal that was sticking up.
SPEAKER: And that way when the actors on stage in
SPEAKER: the scene, he pulls this out of his coat,
SPEAKER: he opens, it doesn't have to worry about losing the cork on stage,
SPEAKER: which would be a disaster if he had to go chasing after it and he
SPEAKER: could take a swig.
SPEAKER: Then it can just recork it. It's right there and go back in his
SPEAKER: pocket.