克里斯托弗·阿切夫22岁时被要求为康科迪亚设计服装 theatre presentation of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, a mid-twentieth-century dystopian play, 他承认自己“被吓得魂不禁风，因为这是一出如此艰难的戏剧。,” he recalls.
而不是模仿其他设计师几十年来所做的, Aceves“下线”，强迫自己想出“完全原创的、独一无二的东西”.”
结果是，Aceves成为了康考迪亚大学欧文分校第一个——也可能是所有康考迪亚大学中第一个——获得国家奖项的学生 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). “I feel absolutely incredible,” says Aceves. “It gets me excited to see what’s to come.”
Aceves实际上获得了两个奖项:KCACTF国家服装设计奖, which may be the nation’s highest collegiate costuming award, 以及美国戏剧服装设计奖国家合作伙伴奖. 在Aceves之前，没有康考迪亚的学生进入过KCACTF全国赛，更不用说获得最高奖了.
“I’m still kind of in shock that he won,” says theatre professor Lori Siekmann. “He made history for Concordia. 其他一些被提名者正在攻读服装设计研究生课程. 这使得克里斯托弗的作品被认为比那些接受过研究生水平训练的学生更出色，这更是一项壮举.”
Aceves, from Boyle Heights, is also a gifted sketch artist, actor, and writer, but only began focusing on costume design last year.
“I love how hands-on I can be with costuming. 每一针，任何我能在服装上画的东西，我都能全力以赴，”他说.
But designing costumes for Endgame presented a significant challenge. 这部有点虚无主义的戏剧描绘了一群人被困在地下室里多年，因为“外面就是死亡”，也许是全球末日事件的残余，他们太害怕出去. 他们不顾一切地寻找地下生活的意义，却徒劳无功.
“我们做这些经典文学作品，因为我们了解人们(如剧作家贝克特)经历了非常困难的时期,” says Siekmann. “This is a challenging, existential play with a lot of deep, philosophical and metaphorical things going on.”
Further, Endgame has an established, iconic look which Siekmann calls “people in tattered nightgowns, 他们衣衫褴褛，愁眉苦脸，就像一直在那里消磨时光一样.”
Aceves避开了过去的任何输入，而是研究了剧本，并决定角色应该在国际象棋游戏中人格化, reflecting the chess term, “Endgame.” He made the king character look stern and strong. 他用车和象的长度使它们看起来像幽灵，颜色苍白——“超凡脱俗，但彼此植根于同一个现实。,” he says.
“克里斯带来了他的想法，这与教务主任的想法非常吻合 Tony Vezner wanted to do with the show,” Siekmann says. 克里斯根据剧中角色的形象巧妙地融入了不同棋子的外观. The layers of thought that went into the design were just insane. 就他在设计中所做的微妙、隐喻的事情而言，这是一次伟大的合作.”
服装设计要求学生仔细分析剧本，回答诸如, What time period are we in? What is happening? Where are these people? 这也需要理解角色以及他们会选择穿什么.
Making costumes proved to be Aceves’ favorite part. “There’s a process to destroying things,” he says somewhat gleefully. “我不得不考虑他们在地堡里待了30年的事实. What does the human body do to clothing? How does clothing react to sweat? I thought of every aspect of what could be in that bunker.”
He added 30-plus years of effects from decay, sweat, food stains, dirt, rainwater, weather, and insect damage. 喷枪工具有助于传达随着时间的推移而积累的层层叠叠的汗水的外观.
然后他考虑到核爆炸可能迫使人们躲藏起来, 想象每一个角色离爆炸地点有多远. Using a lighter and a spray bottle, he added burns big and small, plus sooty scorch marks and a glue-and-charcoal mix, which gave the appearance of compacted ash.
The layers of thought that went into the design were just insane.
“克里斯托弗非常成功地让这些东西看起来像是永远存在的, worn and tattered, 通过故意撕裂东西并将它们粗糙地缝合在一起来反映缝合的角色没有正确的工具或不知道他在做什么,” Siekmann says. “他在化妆室用茶染东西，用漂白剂处理. 他尝试了不同的方法，使布料符合他想要的痛苦程度.”
Amazingly, he did it all on a budget of around $100, mainly using clothing from the theatre program’s existing wardrobe.
“I simply added to and subtracted from it,” Aceves says. “You can do anything you want with whatever you have. 只要你知道自己的极限，并挑战自己去超越它，你就能以很小的成本赢得奖项.”
He also says the costumes were completely clean, even though they looked “completely disgusting and messed-up.” The proof was in the performances, he says.
“As soon as I heard someone audibly gasp or saw their eyes go wide, I knew in my heart I did my job,” he says. “There’s this feeling of, ’I did this. I can’t believe I’ve done this.’ And it feels magical.”
After the play, 他将自己的作品提交给了KCACTF比赛，并在地区艺术节上向评委们做了演讲. 西克曼说，这种竞争性的努力对职业发展至关重要.
“Designers need to verbalize what’s in their heads, to explain to a director and production team very concisely, ’This is why I made the choices I made,’” she says. “Chris is a polished speaker and knows how to present himself well. 我们鼓励学生经历这个过程，因为这迫使他们向他们不认识的人展示, and that’s how you get jobs. It’s like a job interview process.”
Aceves won the regional round, 比任何康考迪亚大学的学生在KCACTF比赛中都走得更远. 然后他向全国评委做了演讲，碰巧在KCACTF宣布他获奖的时候，他正在参加他双胞胎妹妹的毕业典礼.
他说:“当我是第一批被宣布的人之一时，我完全没有准备. “It was a big shock. I was utterly happy. 我的父母和我吓坏了，在一群沉默的人群中庆祝.”
His mother, a teacher, and his dad, who works at Union Pacific railroad, have always encouraged him to pursue art as a career. Concordia’s theatre faculty helped.
“如果没有Tony Vezner, Lori Siekmann和Andrew sierzyn，我不可能做到这一点 Design and Technical Production emphasis in Concordia’s theatre program,” Aceves says. “当他们意识到我有多喜欢服装设计时，他们不断地推动我. They were right. I was very fortunate to get to work with them, 看看这个领域是什么样子，为即将到来的事情做好准备.”
Siekmann说，康考迪亚学院培养了“在各自领域达到最高水平的专业艺术家”的学生. Chris has every opportunity to do that.”