[NEohioPAL] ostumer Plain Dealer FASHION AND STYLE: Harold Crawford goes from Hollywood films to Cleveland theater

[performingarts at karamu.com]

FASHION AND STYLE

Costumer Harold Crawford goes from
Hollywood films to Cleveland theater
by Sarah Crump/Plain Dealer Reporter
Tuesday February 03, 2009, 10:36 AM

JOSHUA GUNTER / THE PLAIN DEALER

Harold Crawford straightens actor Calvin
Lane's collar just before the curtain goes
up on Karamu's "A House With No Walls,"
which plays through Sunday, Feb. 15.

ONLINE EXTRA
• Behind the scenes in Hollywood

DETAILS

What: "A House With No Walls," directed
by Terrence Spivey, costuming by Harold
Crawford.

When: Through Sunday, Feb. 15.
Showtimes vary.

Where: Karamu House, 2355 East 89th
St., Cleveland.
Tickets: $20-$25. Call the box office at
 216-795-7077 or 216-795-7078 or go to
Karamu.com.
0D

Talk about a coup for Karamu -- and other local theaters. Harold Crawford,
with nearly 40 years of experience dressing H ollywood stars, is now
pulling costumes for actors in Northeast Ohio -- steaming the clothes
before every performance,tying ties and straightening collars backstage
moments before showtime. "I'm an old-school costumer. I wear that as a
badge of honor," said Crawford, 59, a thorough craftsman who frequently
works in Los Angeles.

But in Cleveland, there is a creative reward for Crawford, who moved here
four years ago with his wife, Constance, a personal trainer and Cleveland
native. In films he has worked on, such as "Swordfish" and "Men of Honor,"
and TV's "Living Single" and "Hanging With Mr. Cooper," the costumer waits
months to see his creativity on-screen.

"In theater, I see the audience's reaction immediately," said Crawford, the
costumer for "A House With No Walls" at Karamu, a play that traverses 200
years of history.

He put the costumes together a week before the play's January premiere.
Director Terrence Spivey called late, thinking Crawford wa s busy with a
movie. That's a fair assumption about Crawford, who finished in July as
key costumer for TV's "Everybody Hates Chris."

Fortunately, Crawford does his best work under pressure, he said in his
office on Karamu's sec ond floor the day of the premiere of "A House With
No Walls."One of the characters is wearing breeches with his colonial
attire. "He doesn't know a bout the pantyhose yet," sai d Crawford,
smiling as he waved a small package. He's clearly having fun dashing from
Karamu's three wardrobe rooms ("a treasure -trove") to the actors'
dressing rooms to his office cluttered with three rolling racks of
clothes, a steamer and an ironing board. "We all multitask here at
Karamu," said Spivey. "But we get three or four jobs out of Harold."


JOSHUA GUNTER / THE PLAIN DEALER

Harold Crawford, who has been a costumer in films and TV shows for 40 years,
hurries a costume change into position backstage for Karamu's "A House With
No Walls."

The costumer, who also does hair and makeup, lets everyone know he is
having just as good a time working in tight-budget local theater as he does
in multimillion-dollar  moviemaking. He is joyful in his craft no matter
where he practices it.

"I like to think of actors as blank canvases. They stand still enough for
me to paint them with clothes," said Crawford, a picture of casual elegance
in oversize tortoiseshell-framed glasses, a20loose black chenille sweater
(sleeves pushed up just so) and olive cords.

Born in Los Angeles to a tailor father and a homemaker, both of whom made
clothes for their seven children, Crawford graduated from the famed Fashion
Institute of Design\& Merchandising in Los Angeles. After a short stint at
Ohrbach's young men's prep department, a federal minority-hiring program
swept him into a year's apprenticeship at Hollywood's four major studios.
Paramount Studios kept him on for seven more years.

>From there he became an independent contractor as a personal dresser to
actors, costumer and key costumer, concerned with choosing clothes, making
them look  just so and making sure costumes retain scene-to-scene continuity.

He's still awed when he meets big stars.

"When I met Robert De Niro ["Men of Honor"], I was extremely nervous, and
whoa, to be in the same dressing room with George C. Scott ["The Hindenburg
"]!"

JOSHUA GUNTER / THE PLAIN DEALER The audience20of Karamu's "A House
With No Walls" leaves its seats as Katrice Headd (left), who plays a modern-
day historian, and Taresa Willingham, who plays a Colonial slave, strike the
pose they will hold throughout the intermission. Costumer Haro ld Crawford
chose clothes with spiritlike muted colors to convey the transcendence
across the centuries of Willingham's character.

"I grew up watching some of these actors. I never thought at anytime that
I'd be with them," said Crawford. "After a while, you just do what you do,
but I still get goose bumps the first time I'm in their presence."

The highlight of his career, he said, was being called in 1990 by actor
Robert Guillaume, whom Crawford dressed as the title character in  TV's
"Benson." Guillaume wanted Crawford to assist him in "The Phantom of the
Opera," after he became the first black actor to clinch the title role.

Crawford was among the first professionals of color to break into
costuming, beginning with black exploitation films of the early 1970s. He
brushes off early experiences with prejudice. There were subtle slams,
such as having to wait for white workers to take breaks before he did, as
well as overt ones. Someone pulled out a gun on a lonely back lot. "I just
kept on working," he said.

Since 2007, he's costumed 15 plays for Karamu, Cleveland Public Theatre and
other local  theaters. "Acto rs are blessed to work with Harold," said
Neal Hodges,a Karamu actor. "He's backstage every night, brushing the lint
off before you go
onstage."

It's all part of the job, said Crawford, who starts the costume process by
standing in a wardrobe room urging the clothes to "talk" to him.  "The
clothes are my companions. They take on a life of their own. " He's happy
doing what he  loves where ver the work is. In fact, Crawford says, "I
enjoy it more now. I'm doing what I started doing 40 years ago. It's an
amazing thing!"

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