Back at the Fringe…

It’s true.  W’e're back at the Fringe.  This year, we’re following up BIG THICK ROD with Stan’s latest play, an adaptation of Voltaire’s Candide: CANDIDE AMERICANA.

Visual Elements: Set

The story takes place in many locals: a forest, a desert, atop the city walls, the royal chambers, by a watering hole, a riverbank, a skiff, the land of the dead, dreams. Of course, to represent each of these places literally would be disastrous as it would slow the play down and make it more about scene changes than anything else. Keeping in mind that we want to celebrate the theatrically imaginative playfulness of the script, we should find a way to instantaneously enable the story to go wherever it needs to go.

I ask a simple question about color…

…to which Ed replies:

HOW TO COSTUME A SHADOW: Casting Shadows

It’s been a few weeks since I met with director Ed Elefterion to brainstorm on an effective design-scape for Shadow of Himself. During that time, the play has been cast and the pressure is on to have pieces in early so that…

Overall Vision

At this point, I thought it’d be helpful if I published some of my original analysis to give you a context for MT’s ideas about costume.  Here’re some notes about the overall vision…

Color Palette For Base Costumes and Ideas about Accessories

Since one is the absence of color, the other its collision, it may be an interesting choice to have no black or white on stage accept for the accessories (cloaks etc) which can also use other colors not found in the costume palette.

MT muses the script, its source material, his library, photos, and imagination…

Fat Ass:

I have created the following costume sketch for your unbridled perusal.  (Ideas about the Color Palette for the Base Costumes and Accessories will follow anon.)  Please add/edit/delete and ponder.

Each actor will have 3 pieces:  hoodie, shirt, and cargo pants (except female actor who wears ¾ length skirt, ideally with pockets to unify with the cargo pants).

HOODIES
Five different colors unified by style (zippered, pocketed, somewhat form fitting)
Thematic purpose:  Protection, anonymity
Practicality:  Assist director, actors and audience in the transformation of different characters.

SHIRTS
Five different styles:  tank, v-neck, distressed, billowy (for woman) in five different colors.
Thematic purpose:  timeless masculinity, what lies beneath the armor of the Hoodie
Practicality:   If actors are wearing Hoodies, they should have something lighter underneath.

CARGO PANTS
Four different styles of cargo pants also unified by a color: Tan/ Beige/ Khaki/taupe or Heather gray, light gray, slate gray…as it can be argued that these color palettes are found in all the elements of nature: earth, wind, air, fire, and metal (more on these soon…exciting!)

Thematic purpose:  Masculine, military, archeological link to locale:
NB:  “Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning “land between the rivers”) is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers commonly known as the ‘cradle of civilization‘.  Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. In the Iron Age, it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire, and later conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It mostly remained under Persian rule until the 7th century Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire. Under the Caliphate, the region came to be known as Iraq.”
(Hm…where have I heard of Iraq lately?)

Practicality:  Pockets for props, drawstring legs can be used to transform into another character.

More to follow on Base Costume Color and Accessories…

~MT

Dear MT: Footwear, Color, Add-ons, et al…

Footwear:   I like your idea about unifying them.  It makes me think that they should all be barefoot.  Something raw and human about that.  It also will distinguish them from the audience…and supports the idea that they are actors/storytellers performing.  And any footwear is going to put them in a context much more specifically than other costume pieces…something about footwear that locates someone in place/time.  You know what I mean?

Dear Ed: Here are my initial musings on your rehearsal clothes idea.

1) FOOTWEAR:  Different styles of shoes unified by color?  Converse high-tops? Or something that suggests antiquity and the modern world, like scandals that cover the toes and buckle in the back.

Dear MT: Love the questions you ask…

Sure hope you’ll work with us on this.  I’m cc’ing Kevin Hardy, who’ll be designing our lights again on this one because I think that you’re question hits on how I plan to approach this script.