Taking Center Stage
“After all this time, the thing that continues to fill me is seeing that spark in a student’s eyes – that moment of epiphany when they connect with their passion,” says the artistic director of CofC Stages, the live-performance arm of the Department of Theatre and Dance, for which McCabe has designed more than 100 productions. “That never gets old.”
For McCabe, that moment came when she found her way to the College after her parents relocated to Charleston, and she spent a year studying engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
“My heart just wasn’t in it,” she says, adding that an Introduction to Theatre class at the College was a catalyst. “I wasn’t a theater kid growing up, but I was a dancer, and I learned how to sew very young with my mom and grandmother’s help.”
She discovered the costume shop and learned that students could be hired to work there.
“I was the first in my family to attend a four-year institution, and I had to pay my way through school,” she says. “No one goes into theater for money, but I did!”
Following graduate school at the University of Virginia, where she received a masterʼs in costume design, she became an assistant to the late Tony Award-winning designer Martin Pakledinaz, who was working on Thoroughly Modern Millie on Broadway. One of McCabe’s most memorable experiences with Pakledinaz was assisting him in designing the more than 40 tutus and many other costumes that appeared in San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker in 2004.
“They’re still wearing those same costumes today,” boasts McCabe, who worked on more than 16 major Broadway productions with Pakledinaz and about 20 off-Broadway and festival productions in the early 2000s.
As much as she thrived in the fast-paced culture of Broadway, she missed Charleston and started teaching as a visiting assistant professor in 2006. The following year, when she was offered a tenure-track position, the joy she found working with students was the deciding factor in choosing College Way over Broadway.
She loves to help students discover their passion and then follow their dreams, which is why she gives them opportunities to work in CofC Stages to understand the realities of the work itself. It’s not easy.
“It takes more than just getting the work done,” she says. “It takes a special drive and passion and a desire to be part of the whole collaborative environment.”
She makes teamwork a cornerstone of the program. This hands-on environment gives students opportunities to try out different parts of the production. One semester, a student might be designing costumes for Romeo and Juliet, and another, they could be the spotlight operator for A Chorus Line.
This “lab” work leads to well-rounded students who are more marketable but more importantly have an appreciation for each other’s roles in the whole production process. McCabe has been intentional about this structure, pulling from her professional experiences to create a top-notch theatre and dance program with her colleagues.
She is still a student herself in many ways. After two decades of teaching at the College, McCabe says she’s still learning and still loving it.
“It’s all about allowing mistakes to happen,” she says. “That’s what keeps it interesting.