Costume Design Blog

Color Pallet and “The Crucible”

The long silence on this blog comes from my involvement with a wonderful production of Aurther Miller’s “The Crucible”.  Those of you who are unfamiliar with it really should find a moment to read it.  It looks at the Salem witch trials of 1692 through the lens of McCarthy’s communist witch hunt of the 1950s.  And it still speaks about mass-hysteria, pride, and childhood infatuation.  To say nothing of the dangers of miscommunication, the separation of church and state, and religious fervor that gains control of a society.

For this production we wanted to keep a tight color pallet, and explore the confining nature that surrounded this community.  For my part, I also wanted the acts to move from a cool color pallet at the beginning and end, to a warm, even fiery one for the big courtroom scene in Act III.

Because the budget was severely limited (and I didn’t have the luxury of a shop on this project) I needed to keep the design simple.  One costume per character.

There are 21 characters in the show.  Surprisingly it seems like a much smaller show than that when you read the synopsis.

I also wanted to draw lines and color connections between the different groups of characters: the judges and reverends, the farmers, the townsfolk, and the young girls who are the catalyst.

The girls’ chorus in the courtroom scene was, in many ways, the starting point for color.  I wanted to capture the colors of fall, late summer, heat, and raw emotion.

Abigail – the instigator and ringleader is in a passionate burgundy/almost purple.  Her fan group were shades of gold and burnt orange.  Tituba (who doesn’t appear in that scene) was the most brightly colored with deep red and purple, and contrasting blues and greens.

The authority figures for both religious and civic duties lived in black and white.  This reflects their world view.  Everything in cut and dry, black and white, good or evil.  You are either with them, or against them.  There is no middle ground.

Of course, Rev. Hale has a “come to Jesus” moment, in which he realizes that what the court is doing, is wrong.  So he does have some grey in his costume.  And some of the towns folk, who side with the powerful religious authority, also have grey as well as brown in their costume color pallet.

This leaves the farmers and semi-wealthy townsfolk.  These more sensible people (in my book), and for whom Miller creates the most empathy, are in browns and drab greens. Brighter versions appear on the more wealthy, as well as variations such as printed fabrics, and lace accents.  The theory being that brown is an “honest” color, and connects them to their setting (the set was designed with off-white walls and blonde-wood accents.)  Olive, beige, and tan accents blended well with the brown for contrast without being over-powering.

So that was the thought process behind choosing colors.  I know that often this show is done in a mostly monochromatic color pallet.  My research showed that a different interpretation could be used, as the Puritans were not offended by color and small decoration, as much as the gawdy fashions of the day.  If a fashion was popular in other areas of the country, they did the opposite.  But this did not mean that they shunned color all together.

The small budget and lack of shop made this a challenge (I made a full dozen real corsets from scratch!), but it was a tremendous learning experience, and it gave me the chance to work on one of the classic shows of American theatre.

The performance was pretty good too.

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