Scenic and Costume MFA alum Calypso Michelet designs a career

A few weeks ago, Scenic and Costume design alum Calypso Michelet '21G came back to speak to current costume design students about her design career. 

Her work encompasses designing for ballet, opera, and theater on a national and international scale. Michelet began to cultivate the professional relationships that led to some of these gigs under the mentorship of Professor of Scenic Design & Technology Anya Klepikov. Klepikov introduced her to the Costume Designer, Camille Assaf, a Yale mentor of Klepikov's, who saw Michelet's portfolio as part of the Design Showcase East. Michelet has since been Assaf's Associate Costume Designer for the ballet On The Other Side at the Opera di Roma, in Italy (with choreographer Benjamin Millepied), and her Assistant Costume Designer for the opera Il Trovatore at the Houston Grand Opera, in Texas (directed by Stephen Wadsworth).

Michelet, who is French, also worked as an Associate Costume Designer on the World Premiere of the opera Ruinous Gods which was presented at the Spoleto Festival USA 2024, with the French designer Sarah Leterrier.

We asked her to tell us more.

Question: What made you interested in scenic and costume design? And what drew you to UMass Theater’s MFA program?

Michelet: I came to UMass for the first time one summer when I was studying dramaturgy in France and was looking for a creative internship in Theater. Kristen Jensen kindly offered to welcome me to the costume shop and teach me the basics of costume building. I was also able to sit in production meetings, in some design classes, and help in the costume shop. This experience opened the world of theater design to me and started my interest in costume and set design. Three years later, after completing a costume building program in Paris, I met Yao and Anya and discovered that both of them were working as set and costume designers and were interested in creating a program for students to be able to study both disciplines. I was sold!

Question: What experiences at UMass Theater that were particularly memorable or valuable as you look back on them?

Michelet: The fact that grad students are required to work in the department’s shops is so valuable. It makes communication with the technical directors and costume shop managers I work with so much easier. I am able to articulate exactly how I want the designs to be constructed and understand the building process so I can adjust my expectations depending on the budget, time, and resources of each production.

During my MFA at UMass, I also had the opportunity to work with guest artists on the department's productions and meet professional designers during portfolio reviews or interviews — some of which are now my colleagues! 

Question: You trained in both costume and scenic design during your work at UMass. Even though she teaches Scenic design here, that’s Anya’s focus in her professional work as well, and you worked with her on both for The Firebird. What did you learn from her on the show?

Michelet: This was my first professional experience and this was a huge project, so I learned a ton by assisting Anya. But the biggest lesson might have been how to communicate with all the members of the production, with the other designers and producers but also with the many people working on the pieces designed by Anya. Some of the costume pieces were built in multiple shops in NYC, others in Miami, the set was built in New York… And all these artists working on show pieces did not necessarily have a full vision of the production, so we needed to make sure to communicate extremely clearly with everyone so the designs could be carried all the way to the stage. 

Question: What did you learn about the logistical side of switching between two creative disciplines?

Michelet: When you do both costume and set design for a show you don’t really “switch” from one discipline to the other. I learned from Anya how to establish a dialogue between the two, how they complete each other and work together to tell the story. With the set, for instance, you can make the presence of one character really strong — even though they’re not on stage — and with costumes, you can establish how different characters fit into the world, or indicate the location and atmosphere of the show. It is all about creating a strong and coherent visual vocabulary for the world you’re building,and  then deciding which elements will take which role in the storytelling. This has helped me a lot to be a better collaborator with other designers as well.

Question: I noticed that the recent gigs you mentioned have mostly been costume design — is that coincidence or something you’ve chosen to focus on artistically right now?

Michelet: This is a coincidence. I have also been working regularly as a set designer, sometimes doing both costume and set design on a production. As an associate and assistant designer, I have been mostly working in costumes since I moved to New York City because a lot of costumes are built in shops around the city and costume designers are looking for assistants who can swatch for fabrics on-site. Another reason is that I’ve met wonderful costume designers who trust me with other creative aspects of the work, so it’s always very fulfilling to collaborate with them.

Question: Your recent credits include two operas and a ballet. While I imagine some aspects of production design are constant, there must be some different things you have to take into account for different art forms as well. Can you talk a bit about how the demands of singing/acting vs movement are different in terms of your costume work?

Michelet: This really depends on the staging and the director or choreographer. For ballet, you have to allow for an extremely wide range of movements, which requires very flexible materials. But some choreographers want a contemporary casual style which means that I will mostly shop for existing ready-to-wear pieces, keeping in mind how the dancers have to move in them - and other choreographers might want something completely different which will require A to Z builds, in which case I can select the fabrics accordingly. 

For the opera, you mostly have to be mindful of the singer's diaphragm and throat. But I have noticed that different singers have different needs. For instance, some like to have strong support whereas others might not want to feel any restriction at all. So when you work on an opera (or a musical) you have to stay flexible during the fittings and communicate really well with your cast before finalizing the designs.

Question: I know that in addition to the national and international productions, you’ve also done some theater work in Western Massachusetts. How do you balance the different scale of work? Is there one type of job that you find especially intriguing right now?

Michelet: I’m always looking to learn more about my craft so I have really enjoyed working as an associate and assistant designer on large-scale productions, such as the opera Trovatore for Houston Grand Opera, or Ruinous Gods for the Spoleto Festival. Being involved in these productions with huge budgets and staff has been a wonderful opportunity to understand how these shows are produced and witness various artists’ work processes. I have learned a lot from the designers I have collaborated with, who have worked for the most prestigious performing art companies in the world. But it is nice to balance this with smaller productions where I can create the designs and work more intimately with the creative teams.

Question: Do you have any cool upcoming projects you can share about yet?

Michelet: I am designing the costumes for a new play by The Anthropologists, a NYC-based company, co-directed by UMass Theater alum Melissa Moschitto. It is named Axes, Herbs, and Satchels and has been devised from an array of research materials and primary sources documenting grand midwives, the Black birth workers community, and the history of midwifery. I have already learned so much from their research and am super excited to be part of this project.

I am also designing the set for August Wilson’s Fences, which the Majestic Theater in West Springfield is producing.