Costume designer Linda Cho built her career through summer stock at Williamstown Theatre Festival while at Yale, assisting established designers. A 42-show partnership with director Darko Česniak led to Broadway and a Tony nomination. She advises newcomers to vet projects through the theatre community and warns against toxic productions.
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I was very lucky. While I was still a student at Yale, I, in the summertime, did my summers at Williamstown Theatre Festival. And so that was summer stock. And back in the day, it truly was summer stock. And you, again, it felt a lot like school, like boot camp. You would, you would work until 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. You go sleep like for a handful of hours and you go back in the shop at like 8:00 in the morning and try to get stuff done. And back then, as designers, or design assistants, you would assist on maybe 2 or 3 mainstage shows. So professional designers, I think back then it was like I assisted Willa Kim, Laura Bauer, all kinds of really big, wonderful Broadway and regional designers. And then also you would get to design 3 or 4 other state shows, the smaller shows, again with amazing directors like Barry Edelstein and opportunities that are, I think, very rare. And it was great. Again, trial by fire. You just get in there, you have to build some stuff, you have to assist, you gotta figure out the local resources. You just had to do it. And Williamstown, there are various levels. There's interns, there's assistants, there are, you know, young artists, there are very established artists, there are movie stars, you know, also in the production level. You get to see and meet all these different people, and I met somebody who was just starting off as a director, Darko Česniak, and he was doing like a children's show, and he saw some of my work on the wall, and we became friends, and he asked me to to design one of his shows. And that's how it began, you know, with somebody who's just starting off. And we've grown together over the years. It's been 42 shows now together. And he just did Gentleman's Guide, he directed Gentleman's Guide. So we're up for Tonys together on our first Broadway show. In my case, because I'm Canadian, I didn't do a lot of assisting because of my visa. But I think these basic rules apply no matter what discipline you are in the theatre, whether you're an actor, director, designer, you kind of need to tip the scales in a way that makes a show worth it for you. Money, the people that you're working with, the project. So they have to— or just the artistic interest in it. They have to be— if one is really— if you're not getting paid a lot, some of the other scales really have to, like, tip the balance for you to be make it worth it for you. Maybe it's like artistically amazing, the, the, and then the people that you're working with are great. It doesn't pay a lot, you know. I think there has to be some sort of payoff, payoff. And I think it's okay sometimes to say, I'm making a lot of money, not that interested artistically or whatever, but I have to do what I have to do to survive. And there's no shame in that. You learn the hard way. I mean, there's time— I remember doing one particular show and I was crying and it was like the most awful abusive experience. And looking back, that was, that didn't really have, I thought it was a resume builder. I think one of the things I would advise before jumping into projects is to ask around a little bit. It's a small community. So if it's something you're not sure about, whether it tips the scales in a balanced way, it's good to ask around because You don't want to get in a situation where you, you hate your life because we don't get paid enough in general to hate this job. I mean, if there's something else you'd rather do, you should go do it because this is a hard life. It's a hard life. And so you should, you should love what you're doing.
