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The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Robert Perdziola original costume designs for Alma in Summer and Smoke , C0448, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Purchased by Lynn Eaton from J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians in March 2025.

Processing Information

Processing and finding aid completed by Meghan Glasbrenner in May 2025.

Biographical and Historical Information

Robert Perdziola was born in 1961 and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For over 30 years, he has worked as a costume and set designer for operas, ballets, and theatre throughout the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Theatre of Chicago, American Ballet Theater, the Julliard School of Drama, and numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. He has also worked internationally for productions at the Monte Carlo Opera, the Niedersächsische Staatsorchester in Hannover, the Garsington Opera in the United Kingdom, the Finnish National Ballet, the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, and the Sydney Opera House. Perdziola has also worked extensively in the Washington, D.C. area, including at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia and Shakespeare Theatre Company, and been nominated for numerous awards, including receiving three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Costume Design in 2001, 2002, and 2006.

Summer and Smoke is a two-part, thirteen-scene play by Tennessee Williams. Williams began working on the play in 1945 as Chart of Anatomy , derived from his short stories "Oriflamme" and the work-in-progress "Yellow-Bird." The play premiered on Broadway at the Magic Box Theatre in March 1948, directed by Margo Jones, and ran for 102 performances. The story is set in the fictional town of Glorious Hill, Mississippi from the turn of the 20th century through 1916 and centers on the unlikely attraction between Alma, a Southern minister's daughter, and her neighbor John Buchanan, Jr., who grows to become a doctor and man of science.

Scope and Content

A group of eleven preparatory pencil costume design drawings and five watercolor costume designs with fabric swatches by Robert Perdziola for the character of Alma in an unidentified production of Tennessee Williams' play Summer and Smoke . The eleven pencil sketches depict costume designs for the play's Prologue, scenes 1-9, and scenes 11-12. The five watercolors depict costume designs for scenes 1-2, 4, 7-8, and 11 and are each accompanied by attached fabric swatches and include a pencil signature by Perdziola.

Arrangement

Items are arranged in two folders based on drawing type.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center holds other performing arts collections , including other original costume and set designs, such as the Robert Davison original costume and set design scrapbook and "Cavalleria rusticana" opera costume paintings .

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Costume design
• Performing arts
• Theater
• Theater -- United States
• Williams, Tennessee, 1911-1983. Summer and smoke