The purpose of this paper is to document the costume design and costume production process for Darrah Cloud’s O Pioneers!, as produced by the Department of Theatre at The Ohio State University and directed by Associate Professor Jeanine Thompson. The play was presented in the Thurber Theatre at Ohio State, February 25 through March 6, 2010.
O Pioneers!, based on the novel of the same name by American writer Willa Cather, tells the story of a community of European immigrants as they settle in Hanover, Nebraska at the turn of the twentieth century. Research and designs for the production were derived from photographs, historical resources and illustrations of immigrants, both in the costumes of their native countries and in American frontier clothing. The scenic design was an abstracted and stylized interpretation of the prairie, necessitating that the costume design be accurate to the time period in order to create a realistic world for this historical drama.