In the six months of preparation for the brand-new musical “The Heart of Rock and Roll(opens in new window),” costume designer Jen Caprio said her costume team tried 30 pairs of jeans for the lead character, Bobby, to settle on just the right combination of form and function.

“Were they too loose, were they too tight? The ‘80s jeans had no stretch in them. Could he move in them?” said Caprio, who earned a master of fine arts degree from the School of Drama(opens in new window) in 2003.

Among the many CMU alumni who have made careers on Broadway, Caprio said Carnegie Mellon prepared her in the way she works on script, storytelling and character analysis, and how she works with actors to include them in the design process.

“The way CMU approaches collaboration is different from other schools and it’s always really refreshing,” Caprio said. “It’s always a more in-depth dramaturgical process when I come across other CMU alumni, and maybe that’s just because we share a language.”