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Her primary roles are to design costumes for College productions and to manage the costume shop—a welcoming, colorful space of orderly disarray on Harpswell Road, tucked behind the Lighthouse Deli.

This semester, Prentice also took on an additional responsibility: she is teaching her first ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ class, Costume Design.

Students in the class meet at the costume shop Monday nights, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. They gather to discuss assignments (their first task was to design a work uniform), practice sketching and stitching, critique designs, analyze scripts and music, and discuss the merits of fabrics. 

For the first “construction assignment,” when students build a costume, Space Pace ’28 designed a dress that consisted of a skirt with five ruffled tiers of delicate linen and cotton. If it had been a full-sized dress, it might have taken days, if not weeks, to sew, but it was doll-sized, currently modeled by porcelain-faced Sarah in the shop.

Pace created the outfit in response to Igor Stravinsky’s “The Firebird Suite.” Prentice gives her students prompts of music or short plays to replicate real-world scenarios they would encounter if they were working for theaters, dance companies, or on film sets. 

“I took inspiration from my grandmother,” Pace said, explaining his dress. When his grandmother was a teenager growing up in 1940s Kentucky, she attended a coming-out cotillion, as many girls of her generation did. Pace said he couldn't resist attending to all the dress's details, including adding a lacy belt threaded with pearls. “I can't make half an outfit, I have to make a full one.”

For their assignment to design a work uniform, students were asked to meet with someone on the job, perhaps at a café or firehouse, to ask what they wear to work. “It’s primary research into thinking about clothing as it relates to identity,” Prentice explained. “You ask questions like, ‘Why did you wear this T-shirt today? Does it have significance to you?’”

She tells students at the start of the course that “clothing history is human history.” They study fashion through the ages, examine how clothes signal one's status and sense of self, and learn design techniques for the performing arts.

The Costume Design class is an integral component of the theater and dance curriculum; it’s part of a regular offering of courses in lighting, set design, and stagecraft that accompany classes like playwriting, choreography, and acting.

Besides teaching Costume Design, Prentice’s pedagogy extends to most everything she does at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾. Several student technicians work with her in the costume shop (seven are also taking her class this semester).

These technicians are part of a cadre of students hired each year by the theater and dance department to rotate through its different technical areas—stage management, carpentry, electronics, sets, costumes, sound, video, and media—and help support all its productions.

“The class feels very meaningful to me because I get to share what I do as an artist with the students and help them to explore and uplift their own creative processes,” Prentice said. “I’m excited to support how they’re developing their voices as visual storytellers.”

Coming Back to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾

Since graduating from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, Prentice has steadfastly built a career in costume design. But she thinks her calling started well before she arrived on campus. “I was always interested in storytelling and drawing and world building,” she said. She applied to ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, she said, because she knew her varied interests would flourish in a liberal arts environment.

She graduated with a major in the visual arts and a minor in English, and while a student worked in the costume shop with , who managed it from 2005 to 2020.

Professor of Theater Davis Robinson remembers her impressive senior year independent study, when she designed costumes for a production of King Lear—all from “throwaway food wrappers and cutlery,” he said. “Really imaginative costumes,” he added, and sourced sustainably, too, a goal that remains important to her.

(Prentice explained the for her Shakespearian fabrics: “In King Lear, many of the characters are superficial; they appear kind and benevolent but they are really rotten on the inside.”)

By the time Prentice graduated from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, she said, “I had an education in design and production that was super practical, and I had the visual arts and analytical skills that every ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ student receives, and that combined led me to the world of costume.”

Her first gig was as a resident artist in the Quimby Colony in Portland, Maine, where she pursued costume-related art projects. For the next few years, she worked as an apprentice, stitcher, design assistant, and costume designer for different theaters—including Shakespeare & Company in Western Massachusetts, Shakespeeare Theater Company in D.C., and Resident Ensemble Players in Delaware—moving every nine months or so for work. “It’s seasonal work,” she said.

In 2014, she moved to New York City to pursue a three-year master’s degree in fine arts at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. “Being based in the city was fantastic for a lot of reasons, but one was I could work alongside studying for my degree, getting a lot of practical experience doing shows,” she said. In this stage of her life, she worked for Ballet Austin, Weston Playhouse, the Corkscrew Festival, and many others.

As she freelanced for theater and film projects, she said her favorite jobs always involved teaching, “projects based in education or short instructor gigs—these were the ones I Iiked the most.”

When McMurry announced she was retiring from ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾’s costume shop, Prentice got in touch. “She was hugely important to me,” Prentice said. “Julie taught me so many things I use every day still—lessons that coalesced into a well-rounded education, such as how to communicate as a designer, how to collaborate with all the different directors and choreographers on a project, and also incredibly practical skills about pattern making and budgeting. Plus, she’s always so joyful on the job.”

Joy in the Costume Shop

Some of the shop technicians and students in Prentice's class said they’re drawn to costume design because of its combination of artistry and functionality.

Though Gwen Gleason ’25 is not a theater major (she’s majoring in government), she is a current theater technician. “I did theater in high school, I’m interested in theater, and I love to be paid to do theater!” she said. “I love the costume shop in particular because I didn’t know how to sew, and I’m getting better at it because Lily is such a good teacher.” Plus, she likes the convivial vibe of the shop. “I’ve met a lot of people through the shop. There’s always a bunch of people in here sewing.”

Costume Design is the second behind-the-scenes class English and theater major Elana Sheinkopf ’25 has taken this year. In the fall, she took Principles of Design with Assistant Professor of Theater Germán Cárdenas-Alaminos. “That was a foot in the door and boosted my own consideration of my ability. I was looking forward to exploring more,” she said.

This semester, Sheinkopf said she’s excited to develop “more of an eye for the different time periods of costume pieces and styles.” After ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, she’s considering jobs or internships in stage management, directing, dramaturgy, or—now that she has experience—in wardrobe.

Mira Pickus ’25 is also not a theater major (she’s majoring in religion and biology), but is nonetheless producing her own solo show this spring. She also works for the theater department as a technician and is taking Prentice's class, which she said she appreciates for its emphasis on sketching and teaching the mechanics of putting together all sorts of costumes, including ones that can be slipped into and out of quickly.

After experiencing many aspects of theater over her time at ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾, Pickus said the shop is one of her favorite places. “It is my home and I live here.” She praised Prentice for cultivating a “calm, relaxing, and therapeutic” space on campus. “I love creating pieces and doing alterations and I learned how to do all of that from Lily. She’s perfect!” Pickus said.