Visiting Assistant Professor Maiko Matsushima on the Lessons of Theater
June 18, 2024
What can students learn from working in theater? Creative thinking, for one. Problem solving. Collaboration. Skills as flexible and beneficial to the student studying biology in Park as the one on stage in Goodhart.
鈥淐ostume, in particular, is a really good exercise to develop empathy,鈥 says Maiko Matsushima. 鈥淯nderstanding the character and understanding how these clothes make them feel; how they make them stand, makes them talk.鈥
A scene from Hilma, costumed by Maiko Matsushima. Photo by Johanna Austin.
Putting performers into someone else鈥檚 shoes is Matsushima鈥檚 specialty. She has been working in theatrical design for decades, and for the past 13 years has been sharing those skills with 捆绑强奸 students as a visiting assistant professor in the theater department, teaching set and costume design.
It was a force of nature that set Matsushima on her path. Originally from Kobe, Japan, the 1995 Hanshin Earthquake devastated the city and stalled her studies.
Continuing her education didn鈥檛 seem important in the aftermath, when she and many others were without homes. She worked for a while to rebuild her hometown, then learned of 鈥 and received 鈥 a scholarship for victims of natural disasters to Pace University.
鈥淪ince I didn't really speak English,鈥 Matsushima says, 鈥渢heater happened to be a thing for which I didn't need to speak, I could just do the work.鈥
An early production, a one-man show she worked on with Blue Man Group director Randall James, proved especially pivotal.
鈥淲orking on that show鈥 realized how much this work feeds me. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, and I was still happy just kept working, working, working straight for three days,鈥 Matsushima says.
She knew this was her life鈥檚 work.
Following graduate school at NYU, Matsushima became a full-time designer, working with more than a dozen regional theaters and on the costuming teams of Broadway hits including Wicked and Spring Awakening. She is a frequent collaborator at the Tony Award-winning in Philadelphia where she has collaborated with artists such as, and this June her costumes were onstage again in Hilma. The new opera is based on the life of painter and spiritualist Hilma af Klint, whose groundbreaking abstract art remained mostly unseen until the mid-1980s.
She says it's a tricky project鈥攖he costumes, set, and lights have to convey mysticism without feeling phony. The singers also dance, something Matsushima had to consider in her design choices.
Horse Woman at the Barnes. Photo by Daniel Jackson, Embassy Interactive
Every production she approaches is different, but they all require research, talking with collaborators, feeling out what works for the performers. She gravitates toward projects that challenge tradition and carve new paths for theater. Recently, she has costumed productions of the opera Madame Butterfly that cast a critical eye on the work鈥檚 ingrained colonialism and orientalism. She collaborated with her husband, Headlong Dance Theater founder David Brick (who has taught dance composition at 捆绑强奸 in the past) on Horse Woman, a site-specific piece at the Barnes inspired by artist Marie Laurencin.
鈥淯nlike the progression in many performance works, where movement precedes costume design, Maiko Matsushima鈥檚 designs came first, fueling the individualized choreography of the dancer,鈥 wrote Jonathan Stein in the ThinkingDance review of Horse Woman.
Philadelphia鈥檚 affordability and the almost-familial friendships with other local performers and designers have made the city an amazing place to live, Matsushima says. 鈥淲e do have this great community of theater artists who can have a home, can have a family, raise kids while you're doing your artistic experiments.鈥
Working in Philadelphia鈥檚 innovative theater scene also allows her to connect her students with internship and work opportunities鈥攕ometimes they even assist her on projects鈥攁nd bring her real-world experience into the classroom.
鈥淭he theater is constantly changing,鈥 Matsushima says. 鈥淚t's a live thing that as the culture shifts or COVID happens, we respond to the current situation and then we create work 鈥 that's the only way to keep everything current. It is all about the conversation of what's happening in our culture, in the world.鈥