Willa Piro is a Senior and the costume designer for Theatre VCU’s production of The Rocky Horror Show, showing on Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m., Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. & midnight, Nov. 1, 8, 15 at 3:00 p.m., Nov. 4-7, 11-12, 14 at 7:30 p.m., Friday the 13th at midnight. Tickets can be found here.
Age: 21
Hometown: Radford, VA
Major: Theatre conc. Costume Design
Relationship Status: Very single
What inspired you with the costumes for Rocky?
Different genres of Rock & Roll. Rocky is very sex, drugs, and rock & roll so it was important to bring that into the costumes for the show. Frankenfurter is very glam rock, as is Magenta, Columbia, and Riff Raff, but it’s also such a cult classic, such an iconic show that you can’t stray too far from the original costumes because that’s how people are able to recognize the characters. The ensemble is very punk rock specially because during the 70’s, which is when the show was made, it was the start of punk. So it was the original, gritty, 1970s punk.
Did you always know that you wanted to become a costume designer?
No. I grew up in a very artistic family. My mom’s a playwright, dad’s a singer/songwriter, so I knew I would be going into the arts. I knew that I wanted to do performance or fashion design and then I realized that I could marry the both! I love theatre. Costume design is a lot of creative problem solving. Love it.
Did you look into the fashion design program at VCU?
No, I came in knowing that I wanted to do costume design only.
Favorite stress food? Like it’s tech week and you have a million things to accomplish kind of food.
I love popcorn… and ice cream. But not at the same time! Just within the same evening. I love the combination of salty and sweet.
Photo courtesy of Theatre VCU.