Our Next Generation Of Young Designers To Watch
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