Although Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Campbell is herself a bit too shy for the stage, her costumes have been on the stage dazzling local audiences for over 30 years.
In her early twenties, costume designing started out as a means of artistic expression after studying art education and fashion design at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. She wanted to show Bermuda what she could do, and City Hall was her canvas.
It was Jocelyn Troake that first got her designing costumes. She was holding a summer camp, and asked Liz if she knew how to sew. When Liz affirmed that she knew how to sew, she was asked to lend a hand making costumes for a play put on by the summer camp. That was the beginning of it all. Soon, she was asked to make the costumes for an adult production.
“After that I was sort of expected to do every production,” she said. “The costume designing is the creative side of me. I have to do something creative. I always need that.”
For her, costume designing is not without its frustrations. Sometimes too many people wearing the same colour are placed next to one another on stage. Sometimes the actors can be placed in front of an unflattering backdrop, or one that causes them to blend into the background.
“The costumes are pieces of artwork because you work really hard to get the colours right and have them suit the performers,” she said. “You don’t always know where people will be placed, but you plan as much as you can. You talk to the set designer and lighting designer.”
Liz said the most difficult costumes she has ever made were for the Gilbert and Sullivan production of ‘The King and I’. She had to make 16 elaborate headdresses for the dancers.
Once she painstakingly designed and made several elaborate costumes for one actress, only to have her break her leg two weeks before the show opened. The part had to be recast, and the new girl was a completely different height and shape from the first. The dresses had to be entirely remade with very little time. But she managed it.
When it comes to her costumes, she is a perfectionist. Sometimes she has been so determined to get the colours right, that she has designed the entire set as well, just to make sure that the actors really shine in her costumes. For Liz it is incredibly satisfying to watch one of Bermuda’s major productions and know that she made all the costumes.
She recently designed the costumes in this year’s exciting Gilbert & Sullivan Society production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’. Her work has also appeared in Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society (BMDS) plays such as ‘A Lie of the Mind’, ‘Assassins’, and G&S favourites such as ‘The Pirates of Penzance’, ‘Irene’, ‘The King and I’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Into the Woods’, ‘Anything Goes’, ‘Company’, ‘Guys and Dolls’, ‘Mikado’ and many others. She has provided the costumes for numerous Saltus Grammar School productions, and also the historical costumes for many of Bermuda’s 400th anniversary productions that were held in 2009.
As a career she worked in education for many years, and has taught special education and art. She has taught at Small World nursery school, Friendship Vale Primary School, Saltus Grammar School; and worked for the Child Development Project (now the Child Development Programme) testing toddlers for development problems.
She is also very active in her church, The Wesley Methodist Church on Church Street in Hamilton. She has taught Sunday school at the church and has also led youth groups there.
She has never done any acting herself because she says that she is quite shy. She does sing with two choirs, one at Wesley Methodist Church and also the Ensemble Singers with Lloyd Matthew.
“Even that I find a little nerve-racking,” she said. “I hate being seen, I am quite shy.”
She is married to Gordon Campbell, who is definitely not shy, and is well known as an actor on the Bermuda stage. They have three children Jennie, Richard and David. Jennie, married to Gary Skelton, is a professional actress and singer. Gary played Jesus in the recent production of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’.
Liz has two grandchildren, Lucian and Nathan. Her favourite costumes are now the ones she makes for her children and little grandchildren. She said they make it worthwhile because they really enjoy wearing what she makes for them, and it is fun to watch them in the outfits.
