Weaving Stories from Stitches: How UMD Alumna Sarah Bahr Designs the Visual World of Theater

Sarah Bahr -Costume Designer. Photo by Blake Nellis

This article was originally published in the October 2026 print edition of The Bark, distributed at the University of Minnesota Duluth campus.

While many may believe costume designing is only about selecting clothes for actors, it’s an expression of the art of visual storytelling. The choice of color palette, the weight of the fabric, and the subtle details of a garment dictate how an audience perceives a character. It says who they are the moment the character appears. For Twin Cities freelance costume and scenic designer Sarah Bahr, clothing on stage carries the tone of the story.

“Twelve Kinds of Ice is a musical that the Children’s Theatre in Minneapolis is playing this fall,” said Bahr, a 2005 graduate of UMD. “It’s about a girl named Ellen and her dad while the environment around them gradually starts to freeze over. It’s a gray winter set, so I dressed her in cool pinks, purples and blues, like a winter sunset, so that she’s quite colorful against the neutral backdrop. Those soft colors make me think of soft memories.”

For Bahr, designing modern productions requires a balance between authenticity and emotional nuance. While period pieces may rely on costumes for grandeur, contemporary settings ask for a grounded touch that can resonate with the audience’s experiences.

In her recent work on Twelve Kinds of Ice at the Children’s Theatre Company, Bahr focused on crafting nostalgic and uniquely Minnesotan costumes. To complement Ellen’s vibrant palette, Bahr dressed Ellen’s father in earthy, nature-inspired tones such as browns, deep greens and warm blues.

“I kind of dressed him like I’m dressing my dad,” Bahr said. “A faux-fur trapper hat with ear flaps, a plaid work vest with a shearling collar, yellowy-tan leather mittens and Sorel boots. I feel like audience members respond to that immediately and think, ‘Oh, that’s such a Minnesotan dad.’”

As for the on-stage musician, Bahr chose gray chinos and a gray and navy Fair Isle sweater instead of traditional all-black attire. The pattern allowed him to blend into the gray set in a cozy, Scandinavian-inspired winter vibe.

Behind the cozy winter aesthetic lies intricate backstage engineering. Stage lights can cause heavy heat, making layered winter gear miserable for performers. Bahr’s team incorporated moisture-wicking base layers underneath the actors’ clothing and built hidden pockets for ice packs into the back of the clothes to keep the cast comfortable while they perform.

“We all wear clothes every day, and we have very strong opinions about what clothes mean,” Bahr said. “I try to make it feel real enough that the audience registers things subconsciously. I don’t need them to walk away thinking, ‘Ellen’s sweater was a winter sunset,’ but I want them to leave with a feeling of nostalgia, reflecting on their own childhood winter memories.”

Bahr’s journey into the world of theater design was not linear. She grew up in rural Minnesota and the idea of pursuing costume and scenic design as a career wasn’t originally on her radar. Bahr originally went to the University of Minnesota Morris to pursue fashion, where she recognized her sewing abilities and ultimately decided to transfer to UMD to earn her BFA in Design and Technical Theatre.

“Duluth was such a great program, especially being new to theater,” Bahr said. “You took advanced design classes, but you also took acting and directing, while the actors had to take lighting and costume construction. We all got to know every part of theater and it gave us a remarkably well-rounded foundation.”

After graduating from UMD, she started working at the Guthrie Theater and the Minnesota Opera. Wanting to start on a fresh page, she eventually moved to New York City, where she worked as a fabric shopper for the Santa Fe Opera, lining her up to join a Broadway costume shop.

There, her team’s primary assignment was building vibrant “Under the Sea” unitards for the original Broadway run of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Bahr later returned to the Midwest to earn her MFA from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and an MA in Studio Art. Today, Bahr is a full-time freelance designer and educator teaching introductory courses in design at the U of M. 

While she has built a sustainable career in the arts, she acknowledges the difficult realities of a freelance artist lifestyle.

“Theater is a hard industry,” Bahr said. “It’s long hours, you’re always looking for the next job and it lacks the built-in stability of a standard 9-to-5. But if you love it, it’s worth it.”

For current UMD students and emerging artists stepping into competitive and unpredictable fields, Bahr offers advice about networking, marketing and finding balance.

“In theater, it’s all about who you know,” Bahr said. “Companies often need someone immediately and hire through word of mouth. You have to have the courage to send emails, introduce yourself, ask people out for coffee and put yourself out there.”

One piece of advice she shares with her students is to recognize that you are making yourself a brand. Students need a clean portfolio website, a professional social media presence and the drive to self-market relentlessly.

“Find something that offsets the natural ebb and flow of freelance work,” Bahr said. “Whether that’s a part-time job, adjacent industry work or teaching, having an income anchor keeps you grounded between projects.”

From UMD’s Theatre Department to Broadway costume shops and Minneapolis mainstages, Bahr’s career stands as a testament to adaptability in the artistic world. Through every color palette and fabric choice, she continues to prove that the stories she designs for the stage are representative of the stories we create outside of it.

For more information on ‘Twelve Kinds of Ice,’ please visit https://childrenstheatre.org/twelve.