This version of Urinetown represents much more than just a dystopian world. Instead, we are delving into a world of symbolic realism where we tell a story of how Hope, a black woman, shines a light on the injustices of the world they live in and brings about the necessary change that the poor hope to see. Eventually, the change fails, but we want to symbolize how that is not at all a result of incompetence, but rather how the systemic injustices and prejudices that were already set up didn’t allow a black woman to succeed.

For these character designs, we are telling a story of unity, individuality, and practicality for the poor and of artificiality, hierarchy, and restriction for the rich. I believe that these are the two primary groups we should see as vastly contradicting sides of the spectrum with the other characters such as the cops and janitors lying in between the two contrasting worlds with aspects tying back to the rich. 

This is a story about race and revolution. All the primary revolution leaders are black and the entirety of the oppressed are people of color whereas all the rich oppressors and cops are white. We felt passionate about telling a story through a more abstracted realism lens utilizing symbolisms of colors, textures, and silhouettes. It was also important to us for the poor to look like hip hop dancers and give them complete freedom of movement through their outfits, especially when it came to the second act of the show where the revolution really starts to take place. As such, a significant portion of my research delved into different fabrics and clothing regarding the history of hip hop dance, and I found that denim resonated with me the most.