Paul Taswell

And at that time, I wanted to be an actor, singer, dancer.

That was my hope and drive.

And I found theater through a production of West Side Story that I was in maybe two years before.

So at 16, my teacher, Arnold Thomas, he realized that I was very interested in costume design.

And he offered me the project of designing all the costumes for this production of The Wiz that they were going to do in the spring.

Now, I also auditioned for The Wiz as well, and I was given the role of the wizard or the whiz in that production as well.

So I was designing the costumes and also in the production at the same time.

Yeah.

But I was in heaven.

I loved creating these fantasy characters through my lens.

Now, it was greatly informed.

When I think about what I created, I was very much inspired by, or you could say copying the film.

But it transformed into what we could actually create.

manifest.

Thankfully, my, you know, my mother, my dad, my brothers, we all, you know, they all chipped in, you know.

Oh, it was a family affair.

At the end.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But, you know, much of that time I was creating them on my own.

Yeah, the only thing that I didn't sew was my white suit that my mother made for me as the whiz.