Tyro Technics: Young Designer To Watch, Moria Sine Clinton

Moria Sine Clinton, Costume Designer

Home base: Brooklyn, NY

Current project(s): Hamlet Redux, Asolo Repertory Theatre; Insectinside, Grounded Aerial; La Finta Giardiniera, The Juilliard School; Million Dollar Quartet, Broadway National Tour (associate to Jane Greenwood).

Most notable achievements: The day I interviewed and was excepted into Yale, I was standing in the parking lot of the Ikea of New Haven (long story) and said to my future (and now) husband, “I wonder if they’ll change their mind since I didn’t actually graduate from high school?!”

When I started in this industry: I was finishing my training in cosmetology at Aveda and working on a hair show for them at Radio City Music Hall and decided to go to school for theatre.

How I got into this industry: I don’t really think of it as an inciting incident. I have been lucky to have several people along the way push me and push for me, among them: my mentor through high school and then in college, Robin Murray; costume director at the Santa Fe Opera, David Burke, who saw me grow in my eight consecutive seasons working there; and Jane Greenwood, who was my professor at Yale and my touchstone into life in New York.

Influences: PBS, National Geographic, Alexander McQueen, random people on the subway, my mother and father.

Worst advice I’ve ever heard: Drop my last name “Clinton” and just go by Moria Sine.

Best advice I’ve ever heard: Keep friends outside of theatre. They’ll give you perspective.

favorite thing about the industry: The network of friends.

Favorite design/programming/technical trick: Pencil, color, fabric.

Plans for the future: To show up and do the best job I can in life and work.

Other interests/side gigs: Making my husband laugh.

Awards, honors: Leo Lerman Graduate Fellowship in Design (2009), Kennedy Center American College Theatre National Mehron Award For Make-up Design (2004), Kennedy Center American College Theatre National Barbizon Award For Costume Design (2003)

Organizations, memberships: United Scenic Artists Local 829

Other: www.moriaclinton.com

Other 2011 Young Designers To Watch