Dawn Marcoccia ’93 returned to SUNY Oswego's Hewitt Hall on March 26 to talk to a stage electronics and mechanics class about her experience as a wardrobe designer while working for productions at Radio City Music Hall. Marcoccia, who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in theatre, was involved with Alpha Psi Omega, SUNY Oswego’s chapter of the national honorary theatre society. In 1994, Marcoccia moved to New York City to begin her career in show business. She has resided there ever since. For nearly 25 years, she has been working in wardrobe, gaining knowledge as a designer. One of her career highlights includes being an assistant supervisor for productions at the Radio City Music Hall, including the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and the New York Spring Spectacular. As a specialist in theatre wardrobe, incorporating electricity into pieces was something completely out of Marcoccia’s comfort zone. While working for Radio City, Marcoccia was part of the hands-on process of creating light up jackets for the The Rockettes. These jackets had LED lights specifically integrated into the wardrobe design. “We had to program the jackets to light up different colors at different times, so it’d create this effect of having five or six girls in all different colors as they dance,” Marcoccia said. With the goal of creating visual art, Marcoccia said it was not easy to combine light and design with the dance conceptually. The jackets were originally created in 2013, but the process is still relatively new. In fact, Radio City is the one of the only places that has been able to flawlessly assimilate electronics and costumes so far, she said. “Designing the jackets consisted of a trial and error process,” Marcoccia explained as she showed videos of The Rockettes wearing the pieces during their dance numbers. “At first, mannequins were used. We wanted to make sure everything would run smoothly during the actual shows.” Within the jackets, two different lines of lights were sewn into the lining with DMX receivers for programming. Swarovski crystals were also carefully sewn onto the outer parts of the jacket to add to the reflective effect. On and off switches were placed below the arms, which contributes to the risk of designing the jackets, Marcoccia said. “Sometimes the girls will accidentally press the off button while dancing,” she explained. “At times, one arm of the jacket won’t work, but the other one will. It can easily throw off the whole dance.” Despite little room for error, when all the jackets are working perfectly in sync, the beauty of wardrobe design shines through. “Even though the majority of it is electronic, there is still a ‘human factor’ to it,” Marcoccia said. Marcoccia is also working in wardrobe for The Band’s Visit, another Broadway show. Her visit was part of the Oswego Alumni Association’s Alumni-in-Residence program, supported by The Fund for Oswego.
-Melissa Lee '19