Award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell returned to Akron this week for a series of public appearances, including an almost hour-long conversation Tuesday morning with Akron Roundtable’s Signature Series.
During this event, Tazewell, who took the stage at the John S. Knight Center in an ensemble of browns, shared career and life advice that helped him catapult from Buchtel High School to Broadway.
“Now that I have the privilege to share with the rest of the world everything I do,” said Tazewell, an Oscar-, Tony- and Emmy-winning designer. “It just speaks to, in a small way, how Akron has inspired how I move through the world.”
Tazewell’s talent isn’t his lone contribution to the arts. He’s made space for young Black designers to imagine themselves where he’s at. Young talent like Troy Weiss, the Firestone Community Learning Center student who had a surprise meeting with him about four months ago on the “Kelly Clarkson Show.”
Here are three life and career takeaways from Tazewell’s conversation at Akron Roundtable, a community forum that brings together thought leaders from business, civic affairs and politics.
Tazewell: Say ‘yes’ to opportunities
He bet on himself.
Throughout his career — long before “Hamilton,” “The Color Purple” and “Come and Gone” — Tazewell, 61, said he’s found a way to say “yes” to a series of opportunities.
At age 16, he designed costumes for Buchtel’s production of “The Wiz.” Decades later, he worked with Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey on the set of “Wicked” and “Wicked For Good.”
Embracing “yes” helped him transition from fashion design to costume design, where he has won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, an Oscar for “Wicked,” two Tony Awards, an Emmy and honors for designs in “Hamilton” and “Death Becomes Her.”
Each “yes” and his hometown connections have pushed him forward while continuing to ignite curiosity and giving him the creative space to discover new ideas.
“These are communal forms,” Tazewell said. “The demand was that we show up for each other, not only with our heart, but with our humanity.”
Be able to let go of your ideas in moment of collaboration
He realized he could not create alone.
At least, not on a grand scale.
Tazewell had to learn to let go of his ideas — put aside how he wanted a design to be — and instead trust the talent of peers around him.
This lesson in collaboration now allows him to reimagine large-scale movies and Broadway productions.
He said it took him eight years into his career to learn this. Years before this became his go-to practice, Tazewell said at Buchtel, he had to balance designing and acting in “The Wiz” production, which took “delegation and communication” to bring his ideas to fruition.
Let your education expand beyond the algorithms
Tazewell embraces real-world experiences.
These moments, far beyond “scrolls and algorithms,” have shaped him into the designer that he is. Helped shape his self-building, instincts and empathy.
“They’ll give your life depth,” Tazewell said. “And set you apart in a world full of shortcuts.”
Tazewell’s conversation with Akron Roundtable will broadcast across three public media channels:
- Fusion Channel (WNEO 45.2/WEAO 49.2) on Thursday, April 16 (time TBD)
- WVIZ 25.1 on Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m.
- WKSU 89.7 FM on Thursday, May 7 at 8 p.m.
