Costumes & Mask Designing

What is costume?

• Costume is what the actors wear when performing. Costume can denote character, historical era and the style of the production, eg naturalistic or abstract.
• "Costume" often refers to a particular style of clothing worn to portray the wearer as a character or type of character at a social event in a theatrical performance on the stage.
• In combination with other aspects of stagecraft, theatrical costumes can help actors portray characters' and their contexts as well as communicate information about the historical period/era, geographic location and time of day, season or weather of the theatrical performance.
• It’s important to consider the type of costume that best suits your work and also how easy it is to change from one costume to the next. You may decide to keep things simple and avoid unnecessary costume changes which can slow the pace of your production. Sometimes the simple addition of a hat can help to communicate character, especially if actors are playing more than one role.
• If a play is naturalistic then costume needs to be authentic and appropriate for the character, their status and the play’s setting. This calls for research into the garments, styles, colours and fabrics of the time when the play is set. For example, in Tudor England dyes were expensive, so only the wealthiest citizens would have worn garments of bright colours. Therefore, costume often indicates the social status of a character.

Symbolism in costume

• Costume is often used to help communicate a character’s personality. A flamboyant character might wear brightly coloured clothing while a more sombre or serious character would dress in dark coloured clothes. Colour has its own language and can be used symbolically. White may represent innocence and purity, and red may represent danger.
• In Shakespeare’s era an actor playing a king would dress in regal purple, symbolic of holiness, as kings were considered second only to God.
• Costume can really help an actor to feel the part and has a big impact upon performance. What we wear affects the way we move and in some cases speak, so wearing the right thing can help us to find detail in characterisation.

Use of Costume in Ancient Greece

• Actors who played tragic roles wore boots called cothurneses that elevated them above other actors.
• When playing female roles, the male actors donned a ‘ prosterneda’ which is a wooden structure in front of the chest to imitate breasts.
• Costumes have been a very important factor of the production, because they could determine the characters by gender or social status. In the early productions actors have been using body painting. Little by little they started using animal skins, ears, even feathers.
• When the poets introduced real costumes, they imitated the contemporary dressing : the “chiton” and the “hemateon”. The chiton was made of linen or silk and it was worn long. The hemateon was an exterior cloth, worn over the shoulders. It was usually made of wool. Both chiton and hemateon were decorated depending on the occasion. For theatrical use the clothes have been more decorated than usually.

Basic Function of Costumes

1. Defining Character – Differences between characters are clearly made to audience through appropriate costumes.

A. Setting a character in time and space

(i) Historical period

(ii) Geographical or imaginary place

B. Establish approximate age and gender of character

Example: Wigs, hemlines, fabrics, colors, fit, makeup

C. Establish rank or social status: Even in plays without royalty there are social and economic hierarchies.

D. Establish personality

E. Reflect changes – richer, poorer, older, injured, fatter, etc.

(i) Change costume

(ii) Alteration of costume - distressing

2. Supporting Theme, Concept, and Mood

A. Theme – play exists because playwright has thought to express. Playwright’s comment or point of view is the theme.

B. Concept – director’s interpretation of the theme. Costumes must express director’s concept.

(i) Concept based on study of script and action/language of play is organic

(ii) Concept found elsewhere and applied to surface of play.

C. Mood – emotional feeling which pervades the experience

(i) Melancholy, joy, anger, despair, etc.

3. Style – the manner or mode in which the costumes are created to best interpret the mood and concept

A. Realism – as close to actual dress as the demands of play and theatrical values will allow

B. Stylization – clothes depart from real clothes in some obvious way

(i) Exaggeration of shape, silhouette, etc.

(ii) Distillation of period

(iii) Mixing of periods

(iv) Abstraction

C. Color

(i) Individual

(ii) Whole picture

D. Scale – size of an object relative to a norm or other related objects

(i) Realistic

(ii) Exaggerated larger or smaller (horror, humor, etc.)

E. Texture

The Process of Costume Designing

The costume design process involves many steps and though they differ from genre to genre a basic method is commonly used.

1. Analysis: The first step is an analysis of the script, musical composition, choreography, etc. Costume Parameters for the show are established and a rough costume plot is created. A costume plot outlines which character is in which scene, when the actors change, and what costumes are mentioned in the script.
2. Design Collaboration: An important phase in the process where all of the designers met with the the director. There must be a clear understanding of where the show is headed. The designers get on the same page with the director in terms of themes for the show and what message they want the audience to get from the show.
3. Costume Research: Once the director and designers are on the same page, the next step is for the Costume designer to gather research. Costume designers usually begin with world of the play research where they find research to establish the world where the play takes place. This helps the designers establish the rules of the world and then in turn understand the characters better. The designer will then go into broad research about each character to try to establish their personalities though their costume.
4. Preliminary Sketching and Color Layout: Once enough information is obtained, Costume designers begin by creating preliminary sketches. beginning with very quick rough sketches the designer can get a basic idea for how the show will look put together and if the rules of the world are being maintained. The Costume designer will then go into more detailed sketches and will figure out the specific costumes and colors for the character. Sketches help see the show as a whole without them having to spend too much time on them.
5. Final Sketches: Once the Costume Designer and the Director agree on the costumes and the ideas are fully flushed out, the designer will create final sketches. These are called rendering and are usually painted with watercolors or acrylic paints. These final sketches show what the designer wants the character to look like and the colors of the costume.

• The Greek term for mask is persona and was a significant element in the worship of Dionysus at Athens, likely used in ceremonial rites and celebrations.
• A mask hides part or all of the face.
• Most modern western productions don’t use masks, but some genres of work still do. Commedia dell’arte, a traditional Italian form of physical comedy, uses masks and often they appear in Elizabethan and Restoration comedies, where a character might use one as disguise.
• In Greek theatre the actors all wore exaggerated masks to communicate character. These were made of wood or leather and amplified the voice so that actors could be heard in the immense Greek amphitheatres. The symbol often used to represent drama, two masks, one depicting tragedy and the other depicting comedy, was inspired by Greek theatre.

Modern day mask work

• Some modern theatre companies regularly use masks. Punchdrunk’s production of The Drowned Man: A Hollywood Fable, for example, insisted that audience members wore masks.
• Companies like the Trestle Theatre Company and Vamos Theatre also use mask work.
• If you’re using masks in your performance remember that your facial expressions can’t be seen so:
  • your body language has to be extremely clear
  • your movement and gestures need to be exaggerated to show emotions
  • you must bring your whole body into the performance

Difficulties using masks

• There are difficulties involved in using masks on stage.

1. The actor has to keep the mask facing front because if it is angled upstage, the illusion is lost.
2. The actor also needs to share every gesture clearly with the audience to ensure the meaning is clear.
3. Each performer must give and take focus, so the audience know where to look.
4. Staring out directly at the audience to share a reaction is called ‘clocking the audience’.