Costume Design for Performance

Bettina John

• Publisher: The Crowood Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781785009280
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre Direction & Production

Costume Design for Performance offers a detailed insight into the creative process behind designing costumes for the performing arts, including theatre, opera, dance and film. Guiding the reader through the essential steps of the designing process, Bettina John combines extensive knowledge of the industry with insights gleaned from leading experts in the performing arts. Featuring over 200 original artworks by more than thirty designers, this book gives a rare insight into this highly individual and creative process. Topics covered include script analysis; in-depth research techniques; practical techniques to explore design; basic drawing techniques; character development; the role of the costume designer and wider team and finally, advice on portfolio presentation.

1

TEXT AND RESEARCH

It is of great significance to the design process whether or not a production starts with a text, also referred to as a script or play-text. Furthermore, whether the creative team follows the text precisely, or merely uses it as a jumping off point, impacts the design process tremendously. Some theatre-makers might use a text as a starting point to explore themes in it and others might adapt a play, a classic, for example, to fit a new circumstance. Whichever option is being pursued, most theatre productions, films and TV shows, opera productions and musicals use text. Broadly speaking, this book, and particularly this chapter, will focus on text-based productions and how to approach the reading and analysing of scripts. The tools to analyse a script introduced in the following paragraphs are suggestions and not necessarily used by every designer. Many designers follow them in some sort of variation, time permitting, but certainly other designers will have different approaches.

Evelien Van Camp identifying themes and research subjects for The Importance of Being Earnest (1895, Oscar Wilde) created as part of the UAL Costume Design for Performance course, 2020. Organizing information visually can be helpful in understanding it, giving it more structure and remembering it.

Non-text-based performance, on the other hand, is an equally significant field of interest for many performance-makers generally and costume designers in particular. For some performance-makers, the focus might be the delivering of a particular message or the exploration of the body, a costume, an object, a building, a theatre or a site and its particular history. That does not mean that text will not play an important role later in the process, but it means that their work is not text-centred or does not use text as a starting point. A performance that is not text-centred might start with a research and development phase, as opposed to analysing a script, and continues with the exploration of ideas or materials, which will be introduced in detail in Chapter 2. The designer might respond to situations arising during rehearsals, which is particularly common in devised and experimental theatre, as well as contemporary dance.

READING AND ANALYSING A SCRIPT

The aim of conducting research is not only finding more information, it is about being immersed in the world of the play. Sometimes that extends to the world of the playwright and the time and location the play is set in. Before reading a script, it might be advisable to find out whether there are any publications or playwright’s introductory comments available. Furthermore, it will be useful to find out when the play was written and whether the script specifies a date or period in which it is set and where it is set. Some designers will also try and find out what the playwright’s influences or their interests and motivations were. In the case of a newly written script, there might be the possibility to speak to the playwright directly. In most cases, when getting involved in a production of a new script, the playwright will be an essential part of the team with a great influence on the production. Before reading the script, it might be helpful to do brief research on it, the playwright and the time and place the script is set in. This will help to easier understand the script when reading through it. In the case of The Importance of Being Earnest, for example, a play written by Oscar Wilde in 1895, it will be inevitable to learn more about Oscar Wilde, his life and the time he was living in when trying to gain an understanding of the script. It seems significant to know that he was married to a woman, yet had a male lover. His double-life shows obvious parallels to the protagonist in the play. The knowledge about Wilde having had to deny his homosexuality, as it was strictly unlawful to engage in a romantic relationship with a person of the same sex, opens up the text to a deeper understanding.

Looking at social, political and artistic developments of the time a script is set in, will further its understanding. Oscar Wilde participated in the trend of being a dandy and was a part of the aesthetic movement. This knowledge not only helps with the interpretation of the text, but also with finding inspiration and a design approach. A Streetcar Named Desire, a play written by Tennessee Williams in 1951, centres around a woman with a particularly fragile mental state, who visibly deteriorates over the course of the play. It might be useful to know that Williams’ own sister was diagnosed with schizophrenia a few years before he finished this script. Whether or not that gives any more insight into the play and, furthermore, can inform the costume, cannot always be measured in a direct way, but it gives the designer a deeper understanding of the context of the script. What is important for the designer is to have a full understanding of the text, its context and its world.

The First Read-Through

The first read-through will become more useful, and possibly even more enjoyable, when the designer has researched the main facts about the script beforehand. However, some designers might want to just read it and let the message and its ‘feel’ naturally emerge, rather than diving right into an analysis. Other designers might start analysing the script immediately and want to find as much information about it as possible. While this might be a matter of preference, other factors like time might require a designer to start analysing it straight away. It is common for a designer to read a script to determine if they want to get involved in the production. In this scenario, they would not invest any more work into it other than a quick read through. In the case of a classic text, for example, it is likely that the designer is already familiar with the material and starts their process by working through the text already in more detail. Either way, the designer will have to read through the text several times at several stages over the course of the production period. When working on a theatre production, the designer will likely be invited to a ‘read-through’ at the beginning of rehearsals. While this gives the designer the chance to hear the words and see the actors, it is often too late in the process to have an influence on the design. The designer should try to imagine the scenes and how they could appear on stage. This will help them to gain a better understanding of the story and the potential of the design.

Research and costume design ideas by Jody Broom for Blanche of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951, Tennessee Williams), created as part of the UAL Costume Design for Performance course, 2020.

Initial Questions When Reading Through a Script

CHARACTERS

• How many characters are there?

• Who are they and how do they relate to each other?

• Where do the characters come from and where are they going?

• Are there any costume changes?

• What does the play indicate that the characters might wear? Is anything specifically mentioned?

• Who is in each scene and where do they enter and exit from?

• Can some characters form groups?

• Is there an ensemble? Do they sing/dance? How many of them are there?

There will often be a character list at the beginning of the script, stating the character names and, in some cases, the age, relationship to other characters and their social position.

LOCATION

• What are the different locations?

This includes countries and regions, cities, landscapes, whether it plays indoors or outdoors, possibly the type of house, rooms or something more abstract or undefined, e.g. ‘a frightening place’.

TIME

• What is the year, month, day, season and time of the day in which the play and its various scenes are set?

• Is there a significant jump in time somewhere in the play?

• Is the play going back in time or jumping backwards and forwards?

• Is there a change in period?

Making sense of time is crucial to understanding the journey a character takes and the costumes they will wear throughout.

UNDERSTANDING DRAMATIC STRUCTURE ACTS/SCENES AND UNITS

• How many scenes and acts does the script have, what happens in them and who appears in them?

A play, opera or musical is made up of a number of scenes. These scenes are grouped into acts, which structure the narrative development. Scenes contain a group of characters in a particular location in a moment in time. A scene change is when the location or players on stage shift. Sometimes, the playwright does not use scenes and acts to structure the script. In this case, the designer and director need to break the script down into scenes themselves in order to ease the design process. Furthermore, the designer might want to further break down the scenes, into so-called units, to indicate a change in direction of a scene, such as its energy, mood, purpose or tone, for example.

STAGE DIRECTIONS

• Are there stage directions and, if so, do they need to be followed?

Stage directions are comments made by the playwright about the characters, setting or atmosphere, for example, but their purpose can vary widely. They can give the reader more information on what has happened or is happening in a particular scene, for example. They are not part of the script. They can help the reader to understand the playwright’s intent or they...