Classical Theatre Performance Assignment –
‘Much Ado About Nothing’
Tuesday 3rd – Friday 6th November
2015
Costumes Plans
One main focus this week was to finalise
plans for the performance. In
particular, costumes. For our costume
plans we looked closely to our characters and their personalities, and how we
could reflect this through tone, distinctive clothing, and inspiration.
In our interpretation of the play, we
transferred Don Pedro’s royal army returning from war, into a folk band
performing at the festival. For Act 1,
Scene 1 I will be performing as Don Pedro and when it came to costume choices
me and my fellow performers (playing Don Pedro’s gang) looked to inspiration
via musician bands. The inspiration we
were looking for was something modern, standard, yet nothing
outrageous/flamboyant. My personal
choice of inspiration was the band Coldplay:
I personally felt that Coldplay could have been
a decent example of modern and down-to-Earth stylised clothing. However, when looking at these particular
images, I did notice a similarity with their clothing. They all shared the same tone of colour and
style of t-shirts and jackets. All of
which, I felt, didn’t suit the characters within Don Pedro’s gangs. A perfect wardrobe for the characters can be
seen in Kenneth Branagh’s interpretation of the play:
While the stylisation of the clothing is
traditionally Elizabethan, and enhances the physical image of the characters
being royalty, I was personally fond of the personalities that can be seen
within the little details. A perfect
example is the differences between Don Pedro and Don John. Both share the Royal status as Princes, and
while they wear practically the same outfit, their collars identify their
characteristics. Don Pedro’s is blue and
light in tone to reflect his likable character.
Alternatively Don John’s is black and dark in tone to reflect his
menacing figure. This is used to grand
effect, plus this is something we wanted to incorporate in our
interpretation. Therefore we drew to
another band for inspiration.
Instead of having a pop/rock band for
inspiration, considering some of that wardrobe type can be too eccentric, we
looked to folk bands. But the one that
stood out the most was the folk band Mumford and Sons:
In these images alone you can see
similarities between each member of the band, with hints of their own
personalities. Their clothing keeps a
smooth brown colouring tone, reflective of their folk music, plus enhances a
strong relationship between each member.
One little detail that I thought was quick reflective was one of the
band members wearing a yellow cap hat, identifying a different character type,
and reflective to Don John and he would be the stand out member of the
gang/band. Almost giving the impression
that he doesn’t belong here with these men.
These are all elements that I’m particularly
fond of and wanted to include for my costume choice. Plus, my fellow cast member playing the role
of Don John for Act 1 Scene 1, also admired the dark tone within his clothing,
in Kenneth Branagh’s version, therefore
he took to wearing near all black to enhance his menacing figure and exclusion
from Don Pedro’s gang/band.
After a while of trying various folk-like
clothing, I also felt it would be quite essential to include outdoor clothing
to enhance the setting image of a festival.
These were my festival clothing inspirations:
While the images were helpful, in
understanding clothing for a festival, it wasn’t so helpful when it came to
showing off Don Pedro’s character. All
three images seemed to share a similar status, in the sense that they were
bland and somewhat boring. Plus showed
no relation to a folk band. Whereas I
felt it essential to make Don Pedro stand out and seem fun and laid-back.
Therefore the costume choice I concluded
with incorporated all the elements of Don Pedro’s character, him being in a
folk band, and attending a festival.
This is what I achieved:
No comments:
Post a Comment