Richmond Leader

Virginia Commonwealth University issued the following announcement on Jan. 14

Costume designer Vanessa Leuck found herself caught in a creative whirlwind last fall when theaters in New York pushed to open new shows after being closed for almost 18 months due to the pandemic. 

The Virginia Commonwealth University alum was working on three new productions simultaneously — the off-Broadway premiere of “A Turtle on a Fence Post,” a musical about a political consultant getting railroaded into prison by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; the video “Rescue Rue,” a true story about a woman’s dog adoption journey; and the world premiere of the play “Senior Living” at Portland Stage in Maine. She is also revisiting her work on the musical “Emojiland” for the national tour of the off-Broadway production this year.

“My husband [Tony and Grammy nominated theater artist and music supervisor Ethan Popp] is working on three shows as well,” Leuck said. “We reopened shows, and we feel like we are in a tornado. We are all being pulled in different directions, and we hope everything is back on track to be really great.” 

Admittedly there is a lot going on, but Leuck, who graduated from the VCU School of the Arts in 2003 with a master’s degree of fine arts in costume design, works well under pressure.

“Before the pandemic, I was incredibly busy as well,” she said.

Growing up in a creative household

Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Leuck grew up in a creative household and those influences would later show up in her work. Her mom was an artist. 

“That is where I was naturally inclined,” she said about art. “I got in trouble in math class because I was always doodling. I excelled at art and English.” 

Her father loves creative writing. He collected comic books and is an avid Disney fan.

“He took us to Walt Disney World every other year. We went to the opening of EPCOT,” Leuck said. “I loved the fantasy, the theme parks and the fun. It was a nice balance.” 

When she was young, her parents enrolled her in theater camp, where she discovered acting wasn’t her strong suit. 

“I hated it. Acting didn’t come naturally. My younger brother is a great actor, but for me, I would be wearing a trash bag and holding twigs in order to be a tree in the background,” she said.

She was drawn to costuming early in life. 

“My poor younger brother and cousins,” she said, looking back. “I was costuming them and putting makeup on them and creating a play. At the time, I didn’t realize that it could be a job. My mom and dad didn’t realize that costume design was a career choice.”

After graduating from high school in 1996, Leuck took a step toward her childhood goal of being an artist by enrolling in the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she received her bachelor’s degree in fashion design in 2000.

“I wasn’t sure when I started college what career I wanted, however I loved art and knew I wanted to be an artist,” she said.

I loved my time at VCU’

After graduating from SCAD, Leuck came to VCU.

“I really liked the program head, Elizabeth Hopper. She was almost teaching me during my interview. I knew then I wanted to be costume designer, and I knew I had a lot to work on,” Leuck said. “I really liked her and what she said.”

VCU was a great place to continue her art education, Leuck said.

“Liz [Hopper] was an incredible mentor to me at VCU and beyond. I was inspired by her,” Leuck said. “She worked with each student individually.” 

Leuck said she loved her time at VCU.

“All the professors I worked with were excellent at their own craft. I liked being in the theater building. I kind of lived there, especially the last two years of school. I liked the students, the professors and the energy,” she said. 

In 2001, Leuck designed her first VCU show, a modern hip-hop version of “Romeo and Juliet.” The following year she won the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Barbizon Costume Design competition for her designs.

She appreciated the innovative mindset that she found throughout the theater program at VCU. 

“I remember feeling that I was being challenged to be a great artist,” she said. “The foundation I built there got me to New York after graduation.”

Disney, the circus and New York

Directly after graduating from VCU, Leuck worked as a costume design/sketch artist intern at Walt Disney World in Florida — the place that she so frequently visited as a child and still regularly visits with her husband and 5-year-old son, Aldrin.

“[My parents and I] went to Disney World when MGM Studios opened [when I was 13] and we went to the opening-year festivities,” she said. “We got to see animators working, and I bought an animation kit. I told my parents then that I would draw for Disney one day.”  

Her job at Disney World included doing base drawings for the resort’s costume designers.

“They were opening a new property, Saratoga Springs, and I was helping do the drawing for a uniform, which they call costumes,” she said. “I also did flat drawings as part of cataloging all the park costumes for Magic Kingdom. I also had the opportunity to work in the parks at night, examining the ride costumes.”

Her work as an intern resulted in a job offer from Disney. But Leuck had her heart set on moving to New York.

“It was really hard to say no because I love Disney so much,” she said. “But everybody at VCU told me you have to go to New York City. The first time I went to New York was with VCU. I was blown away, both fascinated and scared.” 

Leuck moved to New York in 2004 and still lives there. When she landed the design work for her first New York show, “Idiot’s Delight,” she was given only a $200 budget.

“I had to be resourceful so I went to thrift shops, etc.,” she said. “It ended up the show got rave reviews and from there I got more offers to design shows.”

At the same time she was starting to work for theaters, she was also hand sewing for large Broadway costume houses.

“I had the opportunity to learn about the entire garment district and to make relationships with vendors,” she said. “I also had the opportunity to meet and get to know Broadway designers, interact with them and watch them work.”

 She loves the fact that every show in theater is new and different.

“You get to collaborate with different people, and I like that,” she said. “I’ve gotten to do a wide variety of things.”

Leuck assisted designers for five years while doing her own design projects.

“In terms of work that I have done, I focus on new work, original pieces. There is so much new theater happening here,” she said. “I love every single show I have ever done because I learn something on every show.”

Leuck also has worked for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as well as Disney Live and Disney on Ice in addition to theater. 

“I was the show associate and helped design shoes and purchase shoes for the circus. I did five different circus tours,” she said. “It was a fun job. I got to work with well-known designers, and I got to go to Florida for six weeks in the winter for winter quarters.”

Disney on Ice, meanwhile, gave her the opportunity to combine costume design with her love of Disney and ice skating. 

“I was a competitive figure skater when I was a kid. Mom and I designed my costumes,” she said. 

She was the lead designer on the Disney on Ice Let’s Celebrate tour in 2009. 

“I had assisted on two ice shows prior and was the associate designer for Frozen on Ice,” she said. “I was planning my own wedding while I designed 350 costumes for Disney on Ice.”

Princesses, emojis and super heroes

Of all the work she’s done for off-Broadway shows, one of her favorites was “Disenchanted,” which she worked on in 2010. The show is a musical revue spoofing Disney’s fairy tale princesses.

“We first did the show at the New Jersey [Young] Playwrights Festival,” she said. “I had a $1,000 budget, and I was sewing everything myself. Being able to work with the same people on the same project I got to build relationships and really know the characters. I got to live with the show for a long time.”

Leuck was nominated for the American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Design Award for her work on the show and had her costumes written about in The New York Times.

“Getting press in The New York Times felt really good,” she said. “The show has now been adopted in multiple languages and my designs have been licensed.”

As far as her favorite designs for a show, that goes to “Emojiland,” which earned her a 2020 Drama Desk Awards nomination for Outstanding Costume Design. She will be working on the show again this year when it goes on tour.

Her challenge with the show, she said, was turning emojis that appear on phones into relatable characters.

“I like a challenge in design, and I like doing things that are out there. I was so inspired by all of it. We took the emojis and did this spin where they were super hero pop stars or rock stars,” she said. “Each one of the emojis had their own stage presence. We were creating a whole new world. Our team and our actors were incredible.”

What’s coming next

For the past two years, Leuck and her husband have self-produced their original “Immersive Theatrical Dining Experience: A Christmas Carol” on Long Island for their company Broadway on the North Fork.

“Ethan and I wanted to start producing work that was creative,” she said. “This was a new take on ‘A Christmas Carol.’ We had an audience of 20 and everybody loved it. It was an immersive dinner theater version of the show. We hope to produce these types of shows seasonally.” 

In addition, Leuck is again working on “Rescue Rue,” which was transferred from film to an off-Broadway theater. The show marks the first time she has costumed puppeteers for a staged musical.

“I was excited to have an opportunity to design a show for my son’s age range. He rarely gets to see my work as it’s typically more mature content,” she said. “He’s 5 and the show was created for ages 4 through 10 so the fact that I can share what I do with him makes it extra special.” 

Even though her schedule stays jam packed, Leuck also finds time to mentor students at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Pace University.

“I love mentoring and teaching,” she said. “I’ve been doing that for over five years.”

The one goal that Leuck hopes to add to her resume is designing a Broadway show.

“That’s my plan,” she said. “Hopefully one of the new works I am working on will get there.”

Original source can be found here.