No one could accuse Ann Closs-Farley of being beige. The multiple award-winning costume designer best known for her eye-popping creations in Ken Roht’s 99¢ Only holiday extravaganzas and The Pee Wee Herman Show likes to explode color palette boundaries both on stage and off.

Ann Closs Farley

“I’m definitely bold,” admits the pink-haired mother of two over coffee at Aroma Coffee & Tea in Studio City on a late Saturday afternoon. “I’ve learned to do gray and I can do simple modern [costumes] now. I could probably have my own circus and be happy, happy, happy!” she laughs.

“But it would have to be drag! I love to put men and women in drag. All shapes and sizes. I can definitely have a flamboyant flavor.”

That “bold is the new black” approach earned Closs-Farley a 2009 Ovation Award for Ken Roht’s 99¢ Only Calendar Girl Competition, and LA Weekly and Garland Awards for her work on Bat Boy: The Musical, When Tigers Smoked Long Pipes, and Echo’s Hammer, among others. Last year she received the Center Theatre Group’s 2010 Richard E. Sherwood Award, an honor created in 1996 to “identify and support innovative, adventurous artists in different areas of theater,” which carries a $10,000 cash prize.

A member of both the Actors’ Gang and the Evidence Room companies, Closs-Farley is a savvy veteran of tiny theater budgets as well as mainstream entertainment vehicles like Toy Story: The Musical for Disney Cruise Lines. Not to mention styling for the World Poker Tour.

"The Royal Flush Girls"

“I do the Royal Flush girls,” she explains. “And one of the show hosts. I put these really hot girls in a bunch of Gucci wear. I just recently designed for Easter week. They were all in yellow outfits and looked like cute little marshmallow Peeps! I have sense of humor in all my stuff. That’s the key. I think I would love to work with John Waters.”

This week the über-busy Closs-Farley collaborates with old friend and Evidence Room founding artistic director Bart DeLorenzo, who directs Len Jenkin’s noir fantasy Margo Veil at the Odyssey Theatre opening June 11. Their first pairing was the Evidence Room’s 1997 mounting of Racine’s Andromache. This new show reunites the duo in the exact theater where they last worked together on The Receptionist starring Megan Mullally in 2009. Both shows are co-productions of the Odyssey and Evidence Room.

“All the designers and all but two of the cast are Evidence Room people,” says the director. “It’s just a fun chance to get the gang back together.”

DeLorenzo himself is recently back from directing Karen Zacarias’ Legacy of Light, starring another LA export Michelle Duffy, as the final show for the venerable Cleveland Play House at its historic 8500 Euclid Avenue home, where it has resided since 1927. It re-opens in September at the newly restored Allen Theatre in downtown Cleveland’s Playhouse Square theater district.

“I’ve directed a lot of shows but I don’t think I’ve done anything as beautiful as Legacy of Light,” says DeLorenzo. “The closing image in that play is the prettiest thing I’ve ever done.”

Ann Closs-Farley and husband Keythe Farley with daughters Violet and Ruby

The Play House holds special memories for Closs-Farley as well since her entire family spent the Christmas holidays there during rehearsals for the January 2009 opening of DeLorenzo’s Around the World in 80 Days starring the costumer’s husband Keythe Farley as Phileas Fogg clad in his wife’s designs. Their two daughters Ruby and Violet became integral helper bees in rehearsals and added an “effervescent spirit to the production,” according to its director. The experience served to bond the close-knit theatrical family even tighter.

“She’s a genius,” offers DeLorenzo of his colleague and friend based upon their 20 odd shows together, 12 of which he directed. “Ann is, to refer to Amadeus, ‘beloved of god.’ She just has these strokes of insight. You say two or three words to her and it catches fire in very surprising, imaginative and bold ways.”

“I consider Bart part of my family now,” Closs-Farley admits upon hearing the compliment. “So I feel like you start to read each other’s mind a little bit. Now that we’ve actually been doing work all over the place it’s kind of fun because I like to over pull [costumes]. I like to have five different versions. So I have all this stuff ready in case he says no, but I know what he really wants and then I can mix it in. I’ll swap something out and say is that okay? He’ll say yes because we just married the two. That way I have my give-and-take.

“It’s a lesson I learned in school — Show them the first three things you don’t like. The fourth is the right one you really want.”

According to DeLorenzo, Closs-Farley is the most challenging costume designer he has ever worked with on a show. And he means it as a compliment. “Literally, Ann comes in and you chat with her and she challenges all your ideas about how something could be!” He laughs. “I’m more conservative than she is. I’ll balk. ‘No, no, no, it has to be…’ and she will win me over.”

“I did a Snapple campaign where we dressed the Snapples,” says Closs-Fraley, who designed wigs for one of their commercials. “It was really funny because we had around 30 chefs in the kitchen. And for some reason each one of these executives knew how to do hair!” she laughs. “So I’ve learned to let go a lot, which is really great. I think that’s made me a happier person by not being married to my designs. It’s also why I get along with a lot of directors because I’ll say okay. I won’t fight it. I’ll try to put something in, but I won’t fight it. I’ll keep working.”

Violet and Ruby Halloween 2009

“If Ann didn’t do costumes, she would do hair and wigs,” offers the director. “She has a great interest in hair. Her phone number begins with the letters WIG!” He laughs. “She’s always trying to wig people.”

It’s true!” she admits. “He used to crack up on my wig fetish because when I first met Bart, I think I had just started wearing a wig. I wore one every day for like ten years. And then when I had my second child, she would flip out. She couldn’t get the concept of my hair changing. Take it off! The first child thought it was funny. The second child didn’t.

“Wigs are still big. It cracks me up because kids think that Christina Aguilera, that’s her hair. Or Beyonce, that’s her hair. I’m like, really you guys? Everybody has a weave. It just doesn’t look the same, but women have been doing it forever.”

Margo Veil:  ’40s Noir

Len Jenkin’s noir fantasy makes its West Coast premiere with the Odyssey production. Being touted as “a cross between a surreal radio melodrama and a wacky comedy filled with music and fantasy,” the show has a style dear to DeLorenzo’s heart.

“I have been a huge fan of Len Jenkin’s writing for many years,” he admits. “He’s a uniquely American voice. He’s interested in American themes and American vernacular. This play has a deep affection for the sound of 1940s radio and that kind of narrated story. I’ve always been a film noir fan and a Hitchcock fan. I love mystery and suspense even though theater tends to ignore that particular genre for the most part.”

In Margo Veil, the playwright writes about “the soul in America and the soul of America through this interlocking series of stories in all these American styles,” according to DeLorenzo. “So it’s kind of like seeing 50 plays in one night. Or watching a bunch of great old movie clips but they’re all about one story – with music and dancing as well. It’s a lot of entertainment for an hour and 15 minutes.”

Daniel Bess and Dorie Barton in " Margo Veil"

“Margo Veil is basically kind of time traveling through noir,” says Closs-Farley. “Shows like this are tricky because you read it and then when I saw rehearsals, it plays out in two different ways. That’s really hard to see on the page because the transitions happen so fast in the script. The play is very actor-friendly, which I like. Bart’s pieces are always great for actors to be able to try some new roles. But this one allows me to design the way I like to design — for the actor.”

She says her Actors’ Gang and Evidence Room backgrounds cross-taught her how to costume design for the actor while also taking into account the entire show. “Actors’ Gang is all actor-driven. The Evidence Room is very high design-driven, so that’s totally different cultures. The whole concept of the play comes first there. At Actors’ Gang, it is a tribe. And their use of commedia dell’arte places restrictions within their design culture. What I got from them was how do you tailor your idea of a character through each different vessel? How do you layer the design to get what’s best for the performance out of this actor? Not just attach a design, like big shows. I can’t do that for Toy Story. It has to be Buzz Lightyear.”

Brittany Slatter and Liz Davies in "Margo Veil"

Closs-Farley says she’s doing just that with Margo Veil actors as well. “Brittany Slattery, for example, is one of our actresses. I have to see how she moves through and how her look changes in order for the clothes to accent what she’s doing. I can’t just say ‘oh, I’m going to put you in a 40s black dress.’ I can try, but I have to see if it fits her and what it’s in service to.”

“There’s a lot of ’40s in the play and there’s some more contemporary references as well,” adds DeLorenzo. “It’s always interesting to see ’40s noir live because it’s not black and white like the movies!” he laughs.

“It’s one of those things you just throw the whole book at it,” admits Closs-Farley. “This is a massive show. I’ve picked four different versions [of the costumes] right now. That way, once I get in, I can whittle it down to what’s appropriate for these changes so the audience can figure it out. Otherwise it could get complicated if I don’t do it right, because there’s so much.”

99-Seat Theater  vs. Broadway budgets

So what’s it like working at the 99-seat level after enjoying Disney and Broadway budgets? Is Closs-Farley’s approach the same?

“It’s interesting,” she explains.  “At each level you ask yourself, how can I be responsible? I always come back to Spider-Man. I don’t know what that whole story is, but how do you be fiscally responsible for what really needs to happen in order to make theater happen? Ask those questions. What are you shooting for?”

"The Pee Wee Herman Show" on Broadway

Closs-Farley admits it’s hard to return after being given more substantive money to fulfill a show. “To go back to a small budget is just another feat. It’s an exercise. The difference is when you’re given a thousand dollars to do 68 characters in three weeks, they’re really appreciative of anything you give them. That’s more than the average show. But I have to beg, borrow and steal. And I have to make sure everything that I did borrow and steal comes back nice. It’s really hard because you’re borrowing from your reputation to make these things happen. That’s what I do now. But I’m really responsible.”

She says she tries to educate people at the 99-seat level to be flexible in order to more fully realize their vision. “It’s a little bit more about being responsible for how we can make a Broadway feel out of a small stage. As long as everybody is in on it together, you can make it work. If you can’t afford this, can we wait until you can afford it? Why does it have to be now? Why don’t we save up and make it happen later because this is all you can have for this [budget]. Is the show going on further or is it a trendy piece of theater? Are we just doing this for six weeks and then you’re going to put it to bed? How do the clothes last after this? Do you want to store them or do you want me to borrow it?

“When you rent from someone else you’re actually contributing to your community. Then you can give them back and you don’t have to store the clothes you’ll never use again. On a 99-seat level what I fight the most is people not asking those kind of big questions. I did that with Pee Wee Herman, too. Those are responsible questions a theater has to ask itself now.”

According to Closs-Farley, she didn’t have unlimited funds to bring Pee Wee’s fantastical world to life or the iconic Toy Story characters for a new musical on Disney’s cruise ship Wonder.

"Toy Story: The Musical" for Disney Cruise Lines

“Everyone imagined that I just had this huge budget [with Pee Wee] and I didn’t,” she explains. “I got hired because I have a reputation for making more with less. Same thing with Disney. How can we get the most out of this pot, because Toy Story’s huge. It’s an expensive show. I call that my graduate course because I was exposed to the best of the best — Michael Curry who did The Lion King. The fact we got it done in the first place is a miracle. And it’s because I was really able to get the vendors excited about doing this and breaking new ground with characters, which I felt like we did. And we do that with the 99¢ Only shows every year.”

Teaching and Mentorship

Duke Ellington students design "La Boheme" costumes sponsored by the HeArt Project with LA Opera

Closs-Farley not only has an insane schedule designing for or consulting on shows, she’s also teaching and mentoring. While working on Margo Veil, she’s also doing The Interlopers and the L’Enfant Terrible Fun Festival of Tragedy at the Bootleg, which includes four family friendly Shakespeare adaptations — Macbeth the Monster, Hamlet: Prince of Puddles, King O’Leary, and Titus the Clownicus.

She’s also been teaching a class on costume design using the book and movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at Culver City High School for Center Theatre Group’s educational department and Turning Pages Foundation.  Inner-city youth at Duke Ellington were encouraged to try their hand at designing costumes for La Boheme sponsored by the HeArt Project with La Opera. Not to mention her own recyclable fashions, jewelry, hats and craft workshops she teaches to “ help schools and families learn to create wearable art from everyday household products,” which she has done at the Getty, MOCA and the Santa Monica Festival.

"La Boheme" dress

“I get families involved in trying to make costumes out of materials from their house,” she explains. “It’s like you can be fiscally responsible and you can see things in a different way.  I take the 99¢ Only idea and bring it out to the public. I make 200 to 300 costumes in one day at these festivals. I invite my friends to come and it’s really fun. What are we going to do with that roll of toilet paper? I love to talk about current events to kids as I’m dressing them in newspaper about how they feel about news or information. How do they get it, where they can get it, so it becomes a conversation about the newspaper.”

Closs-Farley believes that mentorship and apprenticeship will ultimately be her costume legacy, which she attributes to the 99¢ Only shows. She believes she has inspired local theater artists to connect to their community and make some discoveries of her own.

“I think that’s where I found myself,” she admits of the 99¢ Only show process. “I became really empowered by the community of artists in Los Angeles. I take on a lot of new grads and homeless artists and I put them in the mix. I try to pay them with food if we don’t have money or just educate them. I started becoming really entrenched in my own identity of ‘oh, I’m teaching theater.’ I’m teaching how we make theater in the most amazing way. I mean the only reason 99 happened is because I had 20 volunteers in the room.

Lucie McGrane, Max Faugno, Stephen Heath & Julie Marie Lewis in Ken Roht's "Same-O 99 cent Electric Ballad" 2010

“I’m learning to manage for the first time in my life, which has led me to these big jobs of managing other people to make their vision happen. I’m finding I’m getting better at it and that I love it. The more that I give away my knowledge, the more it helps everyone understand how they can make more happen with less.”

Every year the 99¢ Only show tackles a new material. Last year it was paper, which raised the challenge of how do you make paper last on sweaty actors?

“That was a huge struggle. We still have only 2½ weeks to make — I can’t even tell you how many costumes. Over a hundred this year. So who does that? Nobody does that. It doesn’t happen. And why does it happen? Because I try to get people to be passionate about theater. I’m finding that I’m evolving into my age and being responsible for my art form. But people in Los Angeles have got to learn it from someone because theater in Los Angeles is completely different from theater in New York. There’s a structure and a school system there. Out here it’s a whole other ragtag of artists, but they’re awesome and naturally talented.”

Winning the Sherwood Award was a huge milestone for Closs-Farley, who plans to use the award’s money toward funding her multi-media “The Happiness Project.”

She says she’s also deeply grateful to be recognized by the Sherwood family, whom she has come to admire. “To be honored by someone I think is incredibly inspiring and who I aspire to be as a family is amazing,” she says. “They’re really responsible and deeply connected to their community. I feel like I’m becoming that, too. It was awesome to get that recognition for the work I’ve been doing outside theater as well.

Tracey A. Leigh in Ken Roht's "Same-O 99 cent Electric Ballad" 2010

“I feel like I’m emerging out of an old skin into a responsible adult skin. I’m happier than I’ve ever been. I feel like I’m settled into my life or into a career I feel connected to and lucky enough that I get to do something I really like. And the more and more I give it away, the better it gets.”

**All Margo Veil production photography by Enci

Margo Veil, presented by Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Evidence Room, opens June 11 and 12; plays Weds.-Sat. 8pm; Sun. 2pm; through July 31. (Sunday, June 26 and July 31 at 7:00 pm). Tickets: $25-30. Student and senior tickets, $5 off except Saturday. Pay-what-you-can (min. $5.00) on June 16, 17, 26 and July 13. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 South Sepulveda Blvd., LA 90025. Box office: 310-477-2055 or www.odysseytheatre.com.