ARLENE FELIPE MILLE

Click Here for Career Highlights / Résumé (.pdf)

 Philosophy

" Along with celebrating the universal and historical truths in a piece that I design, I enjoy the search for what the contemporary connection and poetic meanings are for our audiences today.

I am interested in work that pulls from a cosmopolitan range of inspiration, embraces the spirit of adventure, explores newness, and challenges convention to create unexpected, yet accessible, dramatic presentations of story and character (and when appropriate -- infused with a little sense of humor).

I believe that if the process is creative, then so, too, will the product be creative. In this way we can further our tradition of storytelling and invite the audience to imagine.

I am heavily influenced by music and words in general, and as a designer I am interested in adding my own visual notes to what is already there. I also enjoy expressing the spirit and life of both the character and the piece in my sketches/renderings.

I believe that storytelling and the arts reflect the human experience and have the power to heal. Your favorite songs, books, movies, or performances evoke feeling; they can comfort, relieve, inspire, and educate both the artists and the audiences involved. 

I look forward to working with like-minded individuals across the visual and performing arts. In addition to puppetry, costume design, crafts, and styling, I always love any opportunity for concept development as a member of the artistic team. "

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Biography

Arlene Felipe Mille grew up in Goose Creek SC and has a BS Biology (cum laude), an AS Costume Design (summa cum laude), and an MFA Theatre: Costume Design, with foreign study at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul TR. After being on a medical school track throughout her life and education, it wasn't until she was twenty-three that she fathomed and began any sort of training in the arts.

Arlene opened The Little Prince as her graduate thesis at The Clarence Brown Carousel Theatre, where her work won the Irene Smart Rains Award for Best Costume Design at the 2013 Southeastern Theatre Conference.
Adjudicators included distinguished designers: Todd Rosenthal (Tony Award: August: Osage County ), Michael Lincoln (Broadway: Copenhagen, More to Love) and Leslie Yarmo (Law & Order: SVU).

Her work for The Little Prince is included in the World Stage Design 2013 online exhibition, a quadrennial exhibition of international performance design. She was also selected to be a part of the 2013 Young Designer's Forum, where 15 graduating designers from across the nation are invited to show their work at the annual conference of the US Institute of Theatre Technology.

Among the 15 participants at Forum, Arlene received a personal invitation to showcase her work at the National Design Portfolio Review in New York City. This showcase at the Bohemian National Hall presents graduate work from a select tier of design schools in the nation, and exposes graduates to working designers, directors, and producers including special guest, Mr. Hal Prince (Broadway's Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story) in New York. 

Arlene has worked in the costume and wardrobe department for the past four seasons of Spoleto Festival USA, an international performing arts festival held in Charleston SC, an organization to which she is a donor. Credits include: A Midsummer Night's Dream, presented by Handspring Puppet Co. and Bristol Old Vic, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Angers Nantes Opéra's production of The Magic Flute, and the first American staging of Philip Glass's Kepler -- among various other presentations.

In 2014 she shadow-puppet-ed with Indonesian artist, Jumaadi in the exhibit with Pablo Picasso at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston SC USA. She was an adjunct professor at The Art Institute of Charleston, where she taught in the Fashion Department and Organized the 10th Anniversary Student Fashion Design Show. She was a designer, maker, and head of sewing for Brackish Bowties (2013-2022).

She is currently working as a partner in Charleston Entertainment. She does pro-bono work for Les Castors in Charleston, and is an Advisory Board Member of The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. Causes she supports are listed in the right-sidebar, and include Cinderella Day Charleston (2015-present), and Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep.

(Bio: Summer 2023. Click here to download in .pdf)
 

Inquiries:
+1 (843) 696.0424
archerie@live.com