• Soul Rep Theatre •

Director: Jemal McNeil

Stage Manager: Malaisian Parker

Scenic Designer: Gabrielle Malbrough
Lighting Designer: Troy Carrico
Costume Designer: Kiera Powers

• Behind the Seams •

II designed costumes for Gem of the Ocean, using color and texture to track emotional and spiritual transformation. Aunt Ester was grounded in a navy Edwardian dress as a timeless, ancestral figure, while Black Mary’s costume gradually evolved to mirror hers, reflecting her growing spiritual alignment. Citizen Barlow’s palette shifts from dark tones to lighter colors as he progresses through healing under Aunt Ester’s guidance.

Characters connected to Ester, including Eli and Selig, were dressed in lighter, more colorful garments to reflect openness and spiritual connection, while Caesar’s dark, polished clothing reinforced control and rigidity. In the “City of Bones” sequence, I used reflective masks and a fractured glass-like headpiece to symbolize memory, fragmentation, and confronting inherited history.