The Fruma Sarah build for Falls Patio Players’ 2025 production of Fiddler on the Roof allowed me to do one of my favorite things: collaborate across departments. From the beginning, the director knew he wanted Fruma Sarah to fly, so conversations between myself, the scenic team, and the flight team began early. We knew that her costume would be the primary way to camouflage wires and hide the platform she stood on.

The costume was made of a separate bodice and skirt that each opened at the back and had multiple tie points to accommodate a variety of harnesses and connection points. The skirt was sewn around the cables and lived with the platform in the loft between performances. The skirt attached to the bodice with snaps after the actor was secured into the lift.

Fruma Sarah was also a family build! My brother Clayton used a resin 3D printer to make the articulated skeletal finger prosthesis exactly to the diameter of actor Anna Marie Zorn’s fingers. After Clayton assembled them, I painted each finger individually and used UV resin and a nail lamp to attach them to a pair of white mesh gloves.