Durinda Rice Wood

Real world article
(written from a Production point of view)

Durinda Rice Wood
Place of birth:	USA
Awards for Trek:	1 Emmy Award nomination
Roles:	Costume designer

Durinda Rice Wood (born 9 May 1952; age 71) was the costume designer on Star Trek: The Next Generation for its second season, taking over from legendary Starfleet uniform designer, William Ware Theiss with whom she shared an Emmy Award nomination. [1]

Her most notable contributions to Star Trek are Guinan's outfits and the early Borg costumes. [2] In interviews given for the TNG Season 2 DVD-special features, Rice Wood revealed that she had wanted to redesign a few things including Worf's baldric. As for Whoopi Goldberg's character Guinan, Rice Wood also explained that she wanted her to look different without her typical dreadlock look and that's the reason Guinan is wearing large hats. Her first idea for the Borg design was kind of like a spine of a reptile and she was really amazed by actor Howie Seago. Wood also designed the Romulan uniforms (reworking the design by Theiss for "The Neutral Zone") seen throughout the run of Star Trek: The Next Generation and in later incarnations, and the Ferengi uniforms seen for the remainder run of the series.

Wood left The Next Generation after a single season and suggested her friend, Robert Blackman as her successor, who took over as the main costume designer for the Star Trek television franchise for the next sixteen years.

Career outside Star Trek

Hailing from the East Coast and educated at the Bard College New York, the Yale School of Drama (holding a 1985 Masters degree in Theater & Film Design) and the California Institute of the Arts, Durinda Wood's first work as a costume designer in the motion picture industry was for the 1978 independent film The Kid from Not-So-Big, starring Barry Atwater and Don Keefer. She then worked on Parts: The Clonus Horror (1979), which became fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1997. Wood was nominated for a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for her costume designs used in Battle Beyond the Stars (1980, with Star Trek: The Original Series alumni Jeff Corey and Morgan Woodward). Further credits included Maria's Lovers (1984, starring Keith Carradine and John Savage), The Sure Thing (1985, photographed by Robert Elswit), Back to School (1986, starring Adrienne Barbeau, Terry Farrell, Sally Kellerman and Robert Picardo),

After her involvement with The Next Generation, Wood's subsequent film credits included Listen to Me (1989, featuring Anthony Zerbe), and Sibling Rivalry (1990, starring Kirstie Alley and Scott Bakula). She also created additional costumes of White Palace (1990, starring Jason Alexander). She was nominated for a CableACE Award for her costume designs in Riders of the Purple Sage (1996) and won a Daytime Emmy Award for her work on the ABC Afterschool Special, Educating Mom. The latter starred two-time Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest actor Todd Waring.

Wood later designed costumes for a number of comedy films from writer-director Christopher Guest, starting with Almost Heroes (1998). She then supervised the costumes for Guest's Bestin Show (2000) and designed the costumes for 2003's A Mighty Wind and 2006's For Your Consideration. Ed Begley, Jr. and Michael McKean starred in all three of these films; Paul Dooley starred in the latter two. In 2007, Wood again worked with Guest on an unsold pilot for ABC called The Thick of It, also starring Michael McKean.

Wood won a Costume Designers Guild Award for her work on A Mighty Wind (2003), having previously been nominated as additional costume designer on Mulholland Drive (2001). She most recently designed the costumes for Brothers (2009), The Six Wives of Henry Lefay (2009), Flipped (2010), Quad (2013) and was as of 2014 attached to the productions of Lucky Stiff, Dulce Rosa and La Vida Robot.

Besides motion picture features, Wood also lent her talents to television series productions, and has contributed, apart from The Next Generation, to series like She, Pasadena and Medium (starring Jake Weber). Additionally, she has been active in the world of theater for over twenty years, contributing to theater production performances across the United States. [3]

Emmy Award nomination

As Costume Designer, Durinda Wood received the following Emmy Award nomination in the category "Outstanding Costume Design for a Series":

• 1989 for TNG: "Elementary, Dear Data", shared with William Ware Theiss

Star Trek interviews

• Star Trek DVD special features:
  • TNG Season 2 DVD-special features, interviewed on 5 October 2001,
    • "Departmental Briefing Year Two: Production" ("Costumes", "Whoopi Goldberg", "The Borg", "Klingon Women")
    • "Departmental Briefing Year Two: Memorable Missions" ("Loud As A Whisper", "The Icarus Factor")
• Print publications:
  • "Behind the Scenes: Creating the Borg Costumes", Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 23, March 2001, pp. 28-33
  • "Behind the Scenes: Designing Season Two's Costumes", Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 2, June 2002, pp. 68-73
  • "Behind the Scenes: Designing Season Two's Costumes, Part 2", Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 3, July 2002, pp. 87-93

External links

• DurindaWood.com – official site
• Durinda Rice Wood at the Internet Movie Database
• Durinda Wood at LinkedIn.com