Green Costume Design
I’ve been thinking about how to incorporate more green (sustainable) practices into my design work. On the one hand, frugality is a quality that’s highly desirable in a designer. On the other hand, I’ve recently realized just how many single-sided or photocopied scripts I throw into the recycling bin every year. This met up with a recent article I read on a general trend towards environmentally friendly practices in the stage and film industry. Needless to say, I’m feeling inspired.
Here are some things that I already do. I encourage you to consider whether these might not work in your design flow as well.
I bring home recyclables if there isn’t a bin provided.
I use reusable travel mugs and water containers. When I need something to drink when I’m on set, I try to use my own mug, or at least do my best to use the same disposable cup more than once. It’s hard to do either of these when I’m out shopping, so I don’t have a perfect system for this one … yet. If I buy a can of soda or bottle of water, I take it home at the end of the day and add it to my recycling pile.
I encourage email over printouts.
When the production reports are sent out to all of the appropriate people, there shouldn’t be a need for a printed report. I know this flies in the face of convention where there is a centrally located bible that everyone has access to, but the amount of useless information that is reprinted for all parties tends to be excessive. I find it just as easy to get an email and enter the pertinent information on my own “to do” lists as needed. (Keep in mind, that with all of the useful gadgets in today’s world, you don’t necessarily need paper to-do lists anymore either!)
I turn off equipment when it isn’t in use.
The exception to this is the iron – it takes too long for the iron to warm up that it messes with the workflow. But sewing machines, sergers, and extra lights don’t need to stay on all day.
I shop at a LOT of thrift stores.
This is often for financial reasons, but it helps the planet and the local economy!
I try and use as little polyester and plastic in my design as I can get away with and maintain my design’s integrity.
Not only do the natural fibers look better under stage lights, they are renewable. Polyester? No so much.
I no longer print out all of my research unless I am required to.
Many times, directors can view images I have collected online and respond via email or telephone. Occasionally, we need displays for presentations, but as the workforce gets younger and more familiar with the technology, I think we will have more virtual meetings, and more acceptance of combination electronic and tactile presentations.
Other things that I’ve thought of working towards…
I receive a printed or photo copied script for every production I work on.
I read it several times throughout the process, but I don’t bother to keep them after the show is up because it’s just a photocopy, not a bound script. And while I recycle them, I’m wondering if I should instead just ask for an emailed copy, or get a copy from the library if necessary. This won’t work as well for film and television where there are constant re-writes, but this could be a policy for theatre work. Of course the down side to this is that reading on the computer screen isn’t as easy on the eyes as paper, but thankfully that technology is getting better.
I would like to remember to take re-useable shopping bags when I go out.
I do this for my food shopping, but not show shopping. That should be an easy fix.
I would like to find other alternatives to harmful chemicals for things like dyeing, distressing, and costume crafts.
This will require some research.
I would like to find a way to use all of the scrap bits of fabric.
Whenever I am building part of a show it seems as though we empty a garbage bag of random scrap bits every day. The scraps are too small to keep for costumes and there is too much to try keeping it in stock for future craft or props projects. Perhaps there are local schools that could use the material for arts and crafts projects? I don’t know. I just feel that there should be a viable solution for this problem.
What ways do you live into the green initiative? Have you even considered it for our industry? What can you think of that I’ve neglected to put here? The best way to grow this is by throwing out ideas and seeing which ones stick and improve our ability to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
I look forward to your ideas.
Happy Holidays!
Christmas Carol | Berkshire Theatre Festival
Whether you’re working over the holidays, or taking it easy with friends and family, I wish for each and every one of you a happy, healthy holiday season, and a prosperous New Year!
May all of your designs be the best you’ve ever done, and may your directors, actors, and fellow designers understand the first time around.
Jessica
Hamlet … Evaluation from the Other Side
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
There is so much I could say about this project. Now that it’s over, and a month has passed, I come to the place that I do with many of my shows… review and critique. The show’s design took many twists and turns throughout the process.
I’m almost hesitant to list them here because most designers, while admitting that some changes occurred, will try and claim that they initiated the changes, and that they were happy about them. I will make no such claim here. I will say though, that I think looking back, all of the changes contributed to a better show.
We called it “steampunk-lite” in design. Those familiar with steampunk will no doubt call it “steampunk-non-existent,” but there are enough solid references to the steampunk culture that I think it can be counted among the sources for the design.
For those of you who have not yet heard of steampunk, I would direct you here or here or here to get a sense of the style. Basically it is a combination of Victorian dress, and a fascination with science or machinery. This is a very exciting subculture style to me. Lots of intricate detail work. Lots of fun combinations. And a few HUGE problems for a design of Hamlet.
- Most steampunk clothing is geared (pun intended) toward women. In Hamlet, there are two female characters. What do we do with all of the men?
- Many images of steampunk online look like costumes. They don’t look like real people because they aren’t intended to look like the rest of the society. This was perhaps the largest problem, as we wanted Hamlet to be accessible to the audience of a mostly non-urban community. An audience that may not have been familiar with the text of Hamlet. We couldn’t have the audience looking at the costumes, and not paying attention to the story. So how do we keep them from looking “costumey”?
- Unfortunately, many characters in the world of steampunk, do not translate to the characters of Hamlet. There are no tinkering, scientific women, nor are there evil mad scientist men. And, we didn’t want to loose the Danish flavor of the piece. Cold, barren, high fashion, increasingly became more important that “steampunk”.
What we did use from the world of steampunk culture, was a sense of bound, and unbound. Brass fittings, lacing, buckles, and leather. Unique combinations of clothing pieces, watch chains, and goggles also came in. Some examples:
Ophelia had layers of clothing including a chiffon overskirt that was hitched up with a series of trimming and small buckles. She also had a chocker that included buckle details.
Fingerless gloves and many layers gave Ophelia her steampunk flair
The armies had variations on a theme, with long coats, fingerless gloves, and tall gaiter-spats that buckled up the side.
A variety of buckles on the soldiers' costumes were their main tie to the steampunk genre
The players included pieces that are stereotypically steampunk: goggles on the top hat for the first player, and watch chains on the corset bodice for the player queen.
The players received some of the most direct steampunk references
Ultimately, we came to the issue that I think many productions attempting to transpose Shakespeare from Elizabethan to any other time period or culture runs into. While he was brilliant and wrote universal themes that can be adapted to virtually any place, any time, it doesn’t always work.
We have a commitment to the script that cannot be ignored. We have an audience that is unfamiliar with the language. And we have a desire to make this show “something special.”
Everyone asks, “what is your concept for this show?” when you say that you are doing Shakespeare. They don’t always ask if you are doing, say, an Arthur Miller piece. Or Beckett. Or Brecht. But the more you try and shoehorn Shakespeare into something specific (like steampunk) the harder it is to get there and justify your choices.
Which is why, in the end, we used a variety of sources from steampunk, to Goth, to punk, to high fashion, to Manga, to deciding that nothing would simply button down the front.
This is a really good example of why design and theatre in general are truly a process. The director and other designers and I sat down and came up with a fantastic concept, using steampunk as our guide. However, as we got into things and looked at the direction our concept was taking us – away from the storytelling that is the heart and soul of theatre – we had to shift direction.
Changing direction mid stream can be frustrating … infuriating even. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s necessary and critical; if we want to have a successful production. At the end of the day, I’m incredibly proud of this Hamlet. No men in tights here. Just a raw, gritty production that allowed Shakespeare’s story to unfold night-after-night in front of an audience that was changed in the viewing.
Theatre (or film or television) is hard work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
But there’s no other work I’d rather do.
FAQs
I apologize for the long silence. As it happens, I’ve had a very busy fall season so far. Three shows in a relatively short period of time, one of which was Hamlet (huge!), and some family things made life interesting this autumn. I do want to share some more of my experiences with Hamlet the steam-punk Dane, but first something else.
I’ve been getting many emails, all with similar sets of questions. So here are some FAQ answers for those of you doing projects on what it means to be a costume designer.
1) What is your favorite part of the job?
Answer: I love many parts of my work. I love reading a good play. I love researching new places and people and time periods. I love fabric shopping. I love hunting for the “perfect” pair of shoes and then finding the “perfect” dress to go with them. I love spending money without actually impacting my personal budget. I love the first preview and watching how the audience responds to all of our hard work.
2) What is the least favorite part of the job?
Answer: I get nervous just before the first time I show my work to the director or actors. It’s showing my “baby” to people who may not love every inch of the design the way I do. This is not to say that I don’t have a thick skin and I can’t take criticism. But as another designer once put it: “we always want that ‘wow!’ factor. We want everyone else to be impressed by our ideas. And we are worried that they won’t be.”
3) What is the hardest part of your job?
Answer: The constant change. There is a rhythm and a cycle to being a freelance designer, but there is also constant change. There are times that I’m up extra early because I have a fitting first thing in the morning. There are times when I’m up extra late, because that’s the only time to get work done. There are times when there aren’t enough hours in the day. And there are times when I’m looking desperately for work. You have to learn to live with uncertainty.
4) What is the easiest part of your job?
Answer: Reading the play, and watching it when it’s too late for me to change anything.
5) What is an average day like for you?
Answer: there is NO average day. I don’t work in a costume shop, so each day is different (not that working in a costume shop is the same day-in and day-out either!). If I’m working from home, and I don’t have much that needs to get done before the end of the day, I’ll watch the news and work on email, then head to my studio mid-morning to read, sketch, research, shop online, sew, draft, or clean. I stop for lunch. I stop for dinner. I work until I’m tired, or all of the things that needed to get done, are done.
If I’m working on location, I grab a cup of tea, check email quickly, and then head to the shop for fittings, or go shopping for the show, or search the internet for costume pieces I need to find, or go to a read-through, or go to a tech rehearsal, or do some of each of these. I still stop for either lunch or supper, but usually one of them is eaten while I’m working and the other one is late.
The nice part is that I can set my schedule most days. The down side is that I’m ultimately responsible for EVERYTHING being completed, so I have to be on top of everything, even when I have help.
6) How did you choose to become a Costume Designer?
Answer: In high school I loved making things with fabric and was considering how to make that into a career. When I realized that I could work in the theatre, on different shows, with different people all the time, I knew that was what I wanted.
7) What challenges/ obstacles did you have to overcome to be a costume designer?
Answer: Drawing has always been a challenge for me. I think it probably always will be, though I am getting better the more I practice.
8) What education is necessary to be a good costume designer?
Answer: This is a point of much contention. So much of the theatre arts can be learned on-the-job that one really doesn’t need anything more than a GED on one hand. However, It’s hard to learn how to dissect a play and interpret character without the help of experienced professionals and professors in a college setting.
For many theatre producers and directors, an MFA is the mark of someone who knows what they are doing. I will say, however, that I have met several excellent designers who never took more than one or two courses in theatre or design. So it really depends on the designer, and their own artistic development. I will say though, that the more education you have, the easier it is to get a foot in the door. That’s why I spent the three years getting my MFA.
9) What are your tasks/responsibilities?
Answer: I am responsible for finding/buying/acquiring/renting/building/and adapting all pieces of clothing and some costume-props for every actor in every scene in the entire play.
10) How much money do you make?
Answer: This depends entirely on the show, the theatre, and where you are in life. I did shows for free when I was starting out in order to build my resume. I still take shows that pay $400 – $600 if they really excite me. Mostly I get $1500 – $5000 per show at the moment. The designers for major Broadway musicals earn significantly more.
If you branch out into television and film, the scale changes completely. I’ve done some independent films, but if you’re designing a major motion picture, think in the tens of thousands of dollars for each show.
11) What skills do I need to be successful in this field?
Answer: You need to be creative. You need to be focused. You need to be organized. You need to be able to follow through without being discouraged, or distracted. You need the drive to get you through the boring parts, and the self-assurance to keep putting yourself “out there”.
I hope this is helpful to those of you who are in school and are trying to find answers to these questions either for an assignment or for yourself. For my other readers who are active professional designers, please add your thoughts to the comments. I certainly don’t have a corner on Truth in this stuff, and more perspectives are always better.
Recommended Reading List for Designers
If you are a designer (or are working to become one), you know that there are books, books, and more books out there that can help you learn and grow in your art. There are also practical books out there that focus on the technical aspects of costume design. Then (my favorites) are the pure art books that serve as resources to our designs. As you might imagine, collecting that many books can be hard (if you live in a small apartment) and expensive.
I’ve compiled an incomplete list of books that I consider indispensable for anyone in this industry. Here they are for your perusal. Please add ones I’ve missed in the comments. And should you disagree and feel that something I’ve included here isn’t worth the effort, speak up too. Everybody learns best by having a conversation.
The List
At the top of the list are The Costume Designer’s Handbook and The Costume Technicians Handbook by Rosemary Ingham and Liz Covey. These are fantastic resources and used as textbooks by many colleges and universities. I don’t know of a professional designer, or costume shop, who doesn’t own these.
The next important book is a costume-specific dictionary. It’s vital when you are working on a project that references costume pieces that you may be unfamiliar with. I have A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion by Mary Brooks Picken, though there are many other options out there to choose from, and the internet is filling up more and more every day with resources from around the world.
It’s also extremely important to have a sewing book of one type or another. I have one from the 1950s by Better Homes and Gardens that is a simple “how to” for home sewing. It’s a great desk reference for simply adjusting patterns, guiding the fit of the garment, how to put in a hem. I’m sure there are more modern versions of this, but I’ve found this book just as useful as any more current versions out there. And since I found it in a local used book store for 50 cents, I’ve found no reason to replace it with a $20 version.
After these books, I have a large collection of more specific books that I reference. And I still enjoy browsing the local library. Here’s a list of the ones I frequent the most:
Fashion: The Collection from the Kyoto Costume Institute
In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits
100 Years of Adventure and Discovery (National Geographic)
Harper’s Bazzar:100 years of the American Female
The New Look: The Dior Revolution
The Cutting Edge: 50 Years of British Fashion
Patterns of Fashion by Janet Arnold (now 4 vol.!)
Julie Parker’s Fabric Reference series (3 vol. set)
The Timetables of History by Grun
Clearly this is a serious investment of money. The best suggestion I can give is to keep your eyes open at library book sales, flea markets, and yard sales. Look for books that have good first-source material and good quality photographs rather than a single person’s renderings of fashion or art history.
If you are serious about this career, start building a library of inspirational books by single artists (like Dorothy Lange), comprehensive catalogues (like the 100 years of fashion), and books specifically on technical elements that you would like to increase your proficiency on (like a guide to embroidery).
Start small and build steadily. I like to add one book for every show I work on. I find that when I plan on spending $X of my design fee on one or two books with each show, I can budget better and I can save up across a couple of shows if I really, really want a book that’s in the multiple-hundred-dollar range. Yes, there are several of those that I really want.
And don’t forget the library. If you’re lucky enough to have access to a university library, you can likely find a treasure trove of reference materials. Or if you live in a large city or in an area where your local library is very well-supported, you can find books there too. You don’t have to own them to access them.
But I’m the first to admit to having a book addiction, so yes, I admit to acquiring more than I borrow.
Communication
One of the most important skills costume designers need is communicating effectively with the director. You need to find ways to communicate the ideas you come up with during the initial design phase, and also during the build phase, so that you don’t end up at tech and discover that you were speaking two different languages.
It’s also important to keep in mind that language is dynamic. Connotations differ between two individuals. And everyone interprets visual imagery differently. Many times, I’ve shown an image to the director and they have seen something that I didn’t see before. Or they interpreted the lines on my sketches as something completely different than I had intended. One of the biggest issues I’ve seen in costume designers is their ability (or inability) to get their ideas out of their heads and into a format that others can understand, identify with, and discuss or create.
Obviously the first attempt at creating a common language with the director is through a combination of research, sketching, and renderings. It’s important to dialogue with them during this because as I said above, everyone brings their own past associations to an image.
What I may see as an innocent, youthful young girl, someone else may look at it and see an over-sexed teenager. One person’s punk rock look is another’s Piccadilly Circus. So it’s great to sort things out visually, but you should never rely solely on visual images – you need to verbalize your ideas as well.
There comes a point where the ideas are transformed from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional. Whether you are shopping the show, building the show, or having the show built for you, you must keep the director in on the process. Even if they don’t respond to you directly, or overtly, they want to know that you are producing what is in their heads. I know that may seem slightly backwards, it is your design after all. But theatre is collaboration. No designer – world famous, or fresh out of school – dictates to the director what the costumes will be.
So here are some tips for improving the language gulf between design and direction…
- Put words on your sketches. Describe what you are drawing. Clarify details that may be missing or smoodgy. Take notes during meetings directly on the rendering so they know you are paying attention, and you both remember what decisions you’ve come to.
- Take photos during fittings and send them to the director. Take photos while you are out shopping if you see something you may want to use, or characters you see on the street that may be good resources for characters. Invite the director to come to the shop and see the progress multiple times.
- Take real items into rehearsal from time to time. This not only lets the actors get used to how the real shoes, hats, coats, purses, etc. work but the director sees these items as well.
The more open you are during the process, the easier it is. The designer and director get to know how the other thinks and problem-solves. By the end of the show, each is better at anticipating what the other means when they say “…”.
Silence …
Hi Everyone! Sorry for my silence. I’ve been caught up working on three shows at once, then managed a week of vacation where there is no internet access (!) and now I’m off to work on a show in Vermont. I’ll post a new entry soon.
Just didn’t want anyone to think I’d fallen off the face of the earth. 
Common Sense Time Management for Artists
I was reading a blog entry by JD over at Get Rich Slowly and started realizing how bad I am at budgeting personal finances. This is surprising only because I am incredibly good with a show budget, and with budgeting my time so that everything gets done.
The article over at Get Rich Slowly is excellent for helping manage personal money for those of us who are full-time freelancing and don’t have a steady income. I highly recommend heading over that way once you’ve read this!
Budgeting: It’s Not Just About Money
Budgeting for a show comes down to a few key items: knowing what your final design is, knowing when it’s better build or to buy, and knowing where to find the costume pieces inexpensively. I’ve talked about this before.
Budgeting time, or time management, is a bit more tricky.
For whatever reason, I have always been particularly good with time. In school, I usually had assignments done before they were due (I remember one particularly bad all-nighter that sealed my resolve to never do it again), and I’m often amazed when other designers talk about not having any time to do personal activities because they are working too hard.
I work hard too, but I still have time for family and friends. Why is that?
I think that I have unconsciously figured out how to determine when to do each task that needs to be done. (Trust me, this wasn’t something I sat down and figured out; it’s a quirk of who I am.)
When I’m working at my desk or sewing table, I’m focused and completely engaged in the work. I get it done, and go out to the yard to clip the grass, or pull weeds, or watch the fish … but I’m still working.
I’m using that time to let ideas settle. Percolate. Work themselves into fuller manifestations (if you will).
An Example
I just finished a first round of rough sketches for Hamlet. It took me almost three weeks from the first meeting with the director and rest of the design team; not because I couldn’t draw faster, or I was “having bad drawing days”, or I was procrastinating.
My rough of Hamlet
I was letting the images from the research “settle”.
I knew that I wanted to have the roughs done by a certain day, but I wanted to know what I was going to draw before I got out the paper. I wanted to really know my characters when I picked up the pencil. I think I ended up physically drawing for a total of 10 hours. Not a straight 10 hour shot, but 10 hours accumulated, which comes out to roughly a half hour per sketch.
And they were done and “handed in” before the deadline. This does not mean, by the way, that they are finished, or perfect, or that I won’t revise them as the process continues.
So some ideas on how to better manage time:
1 – Know when you are the most productive. Personally, I work my best two hours after I get up and with (at least) three cups of tea in me. And I can work pretty much straight through for five hours without needing a break. After that, I really need to work on things that require less mental attention – the more “mundane” tasks of costume designing.
2 – Don’t let yourself get distracted during those key work hours! I enjoy having some sort of noise in the room if I’m not actually reading a play. I’ll put on Hulu in the afternoons to listen while I’m sketching or putting together a garment. But I only have music or the radio on if I need to focus on a draping project, or putting together a tricky look for a character.
3 – If you aren’t actively working on your show, do something else and let your brain process subconsciously for awhile. I get pretty contemplative while I clean the dishes, or do the laundry. In some cases this is procrastination, but I always come up with the solution to a problem if I attack it from the side like this, rather than stew over it at my drafting table. It’s the best kind of multi-tasking!
4 – Get enough sleep. And food. Chemically, your brain does not function as well if you don’t take care of your body. If you take the time to de-stress, I guarantee that you’ll be more productive.
5 – Take the time to get out of your personal world. This is best done with someone else (and it means you’ll be spending time with your loved ones!) If you are in a city, there is nothing more eye-opening than walking around a new neighborhood. Going to a new museum. Walking through the park. But you need to be actively looking. Not just wandering around with your nose in the ground. If you live in a small town, or in the country, surf the internet!
So, there are only 24 hours in the day. Use them well! And get it all done.
Costume Design Appreciation
This summer I have had several different opportunities to speak with people not in theatre about what it is that a costume designer does. This was fascinating on several levels. Theatre is such an insulated field that I often forget that I’m speaking a different language when I’m talking to someone outside of that world!
An Academic Conference
The first occasion was at a conference at the Annenberg School of Communication in Philadelphia that brought together academics from a variety of disciplines to discuss the science of performance and how it relates to the theatre. Interestingly, while many of the participants had never had an experience other than as an audience member in the theatre, many of the presenters were theatre practitioners. Much of the conference was devoted to steampunk- and this idea of using technology in performance. A very exciting idea, and I wish that I could have listened to some of the other presenters, but I was pushed for time (I was actually in tech that week for another show) so I could only do my presentation.
In my presentation, I focused on translating a 2D image (a costume rendering) into a 3D costume. Over the years, I’ve found that non-designers have the toughest time understanding how that happens more than any other concept. I have them an overview of the discipline and showed them a gown I’d build from a fantasy artist’s painting. I intentionally used a non-theatre starting point, because I wanted them to see that art of any sort can be translated from two dimensions to three dimensions, so long as you know how to accommodate for gravity and other interesting differences between art and the real world.
High School Students
The second occasion was a talk with a group of inner city high school-aged students at the Mariana Bracetti Academy in Philadelphia who were taking a summer course in theatre. They were all very attentive and asked some really good questions that I would not have thought to answer in the context of my presentation to them.
The kids were surprised by the amount of time that goes into a costume design. As one student said, “One thing I learned from talking to you and seeing you [was] seeing is easier than actually doing it. Because from the looks of it, it seems like it doesn’t take that long to design, but [you] fooled me! Thank you for coming.” (the students all wrote thank you notes – a dying art – that I was most grateful to receive.)
Interesting Questions
One of the questions from the conference was,
“So, who do you report to as the costume designer?”
This took me a little by surprise, but I started the list: we report to the director, the other designers (sets, lights, sound), the producer (and sometimes the producer’s spouse/partner), the actors, and everyone in the costume shop – shop managers, drapers, stitchers, wardrobe staff, etc. I didn’t even think about it much, but as I was listing all of the people that I work with on any given show, the eyes of the conference participants grew larger and larger.
What I Learned from These Engagements
What did I get out of all of this? Mostly satisfaction that what I do really is work. That those of us who are good, make it look far more effortless than it will ever be. That it’s an art form unto itself.
It’s nice to be reminded that people appreciate what you contribute to the show. It’s so easy to walk away from a show opening and run straight into the next one, forgetting why you are doing it at all.
My thanks to the conference participants and those wonderful students for reminding me.
Designing Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Part I
I have been asked to design Hamlet! Yes, I am excited about it too!
I have fond memories of this particular show from my High School English class. I know most people look back on their English class Shakespeare assignments with dread and loathing rather than love, but I think I had an exceptional English teacher for that class in particular. I still remember how she talked about this play as having permeated our culture. Lines from it are everywhere, and once you start reading the play, you realize how true that is. Because of that, she thought Hamlet was the best of Shakespeare’s works, though I think we also touched on the other “greats”, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer, etc….
I remember that we had to learn one of Hamlet’s soliloquies and understand the emotion behind it. We also had to, in pairs or small groups, stage one of the scenes. So we learned how to read and understand Shakespeare… not always an easy thing to do, unless you are a Shakespearean scholar.
But I digress – I really just wanted to point out how invaluable this particular class was for me, and how much it helped me start re-reading this script.
Back to my new design gig
For this production the director has a strong idea of what she would like to see in the costumes and overall designs. She sent me a packet of visual research last week with notes:
“I love this detail”
“I hate these shoes, but I like the structure of the jacket”
“This is too far [or, too costume-y, or too period]“
Mostly I find this sort of information helpful.
It tells me what to avoid researching because she will inevitably hate it. The biggest challenge for me as a designer in this situation is my own justification for any particular style choices. I can’t just say “because my director liked it” when a producer or other future employer asks why Ophelia is in grunge bondage.
Strong directors may be challenging, but it’s in the good way
This isn’t the first time I’ve been given strong direction from a director. Nor will it be my last.
The last time I designed a Shakespearean play – King Lear – the director also had a clear vision for the design of the show. It leaves me wondering if this is simply the way Shakespeare is produced in the United States. In some ways it makes sense as his plays are so dense that they require serious study, yet they are completely timeless (as is evidenced by our penchant to place them in different time periods and / or places in the world).
King Lear was set in an insane asylum. He himself was modern day, as were many of the supplemental characters (dressed as doctors and nurses) along with Kent and the Fool. These main three (Lear, Kent, and the Fool) were constrained to wheelchairs for the most part.
When Glouster’s eyes were gouged out, it was done in a dentist’s chair and involved copious amounts of stage blood. When Kent was put into the stocks, he was placed into a real iron lung. Very creepy, yet very cool.
Many of the secondary characters – Lear’s daughters and their husbands – were all interpreted as “shadow characters” from the old black-and-white horror movies of the early 20th century (think of “Frankenstein“, or “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde“). Simple Victorian lines.
It was an interesting contrast. And the director used stylistic acting techniques that helped the whole thing hold together as a production.
But don’t lose yourself as the Designer
It is easy in these sorts of situations to feel that you are being handed the designs from the director. The trick in keeping yourself engaged in the process is to understand that you aren’t.
No matter how much you feel that this isn’t your design, it really is. Always. You are the one ultimately responsible for what ends up on stage.
The director won’t be making all of the decisions for you unless you completely give up. The director is simply setting the framework that you need to design within. There is both freedom and challenge in that. Your job as the designer is to take the framework you’re given and build on that to give the characters life and breath through the costume choices you make.
Back to Hamlet
It looks like this Hamlet is going to be very modern.
A mixture of high-fashion, steampunk, goth, Lolita, and possibly a few other current popular sub-cultures.
The idea that seems to be most important though is an interplay between the notion of being ”bound” versus “un-bound”; “structured” versus “un-structured” in terms of the garments and how they relate to the emotional stability of the characters.
This makes sense in light of the eminent madness that four of the main characters experience through the course of the play.
I can also justify the idea of high fashion as this is the royal house of Denmark and all of the court should be well-dressed.
Hamlet and Horatio are somewhat anti-establishment (Hamlet the more obvious) and these sub-cultures should be reflected in his costume.
To tie everything together through steampunk, while exciting, seems slightly arbitrary, but this is only the very beginning of the process. I thought this could be interesting to let you view this process in sort of real time. You can expect irregular updates on this show as we go along.
It will be an adventure … let me know what questions you have as we go along. I’ll do my best to answer them.
