Sewing helped stitch a career

One of the earliest indicators of costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee's future career was this simple fact: She could sew.

"In high school, I took a lot of home economics classes and liked it," said Colley-Lee, a Hamlett, N.C., native. "It was the late '50s when girls were steered in that direction."

After college, in Manhattan, her roommate started a musical theater. "I did a little bit of everything for her and with her and costumes were a natural place to go," said Colley-Lee, who also helped out with posters and sets.

Gladrags: Sketches, Swatches and Costume Designs by Myrna Colley-Lee, will be on display at the Mississippi Museum of Art Saturday through Oct. 15. The nearly 100 works span almost three decades of work, largely in the regional theater circuit.

Colley-Lee lives with her husband, actor Morgan Freeman, on their farm in Charleston.

Colley-Lee received her bachelor of fine art in art education from the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and studied scene painting and properties at Brooklyn College in New York. She received her master of fine arts in scenic and costume design from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1980.

Included in her credits are: the video production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, which won a CableACE Award; the world premiere of the opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X composed by Anthony Davis and performed at the Walnut Theater in Philadelphia; and Mothers, commissioned by Bill Cosby and performed at Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, N.J.

Relativity at the Black Rep in St. Louis, Mo., The Piano Lesson and Forest City at the Cleveland Playhouse in Ohio and Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White for Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago are recent plays featuring Colley-Lee's costume designs.

For the 2003 Wedding Band, set in 1918, Colley-Lee had a chance to work with the cast, "a luxury," she said; figures in her sketches take on their likeness.

Sketches from her graduate school days, of costumes that were never realized, are among the most detailed, including one with painted lace. "The trick is to try to go from that vision in your head, as detailed as it is, to a sketch rather than a completed painting," Colley-Lee said. "It's just hard to stop yourself."

Her collages for the look or style of a certain character, essentially arrangements of clipped or photocopied artwork, provided a sort of "shopping list" for stock houses for some productions.

"But you can see how artistic it is," said Robin Dietrick, curator of exhibitions at the museum. "Even though it's functional, she's definitely taking the time to make sure these are interesting pieces to look at."

After the installation of Gladrags at the museum, she'll begin work as production designer for the independent film The Reprieve. But theater is clearly the main outlet.

"Movies are extremely time intensive. I don't think I could have a family and do movie design. I have girlfriends who don't have lives. Their life is their job," Colley-Lee said.

"I like theater. It's immediate, it's live, it's six weeks and it's over and you're on to the next one."