Costume This with Ms. A.

The Costumer’s Manifesto: (A statement of Purpose and Ethics for Costumers)

“I am a Costumer, I make clothes for imaginary people.” —Celestine Ranney, 1982

I. When I costume, I am not a fashion designer nor a clothing manufacturer, but a builder of character, concept, and physical movement.

II. I, above all, work with Actors: I help them build their character from without, even as they build it from within. I do not complain about the shape of their bodies. I create the shape we need, and/or build a visual representation of the character that suits the existing body. I am aware of their movement needs and I facilitate them.

III. I work under the guidance of Directors: I help them visually represent their conceptual ideas in physical form. I create clothes for the inhabitants of the world they envision.

IV. I am inspired by the words of Playwrights and Scriptwriters: I try to bring alive the script by transforming the words of the text into visual metaphors. Words, especially poetry in the text, need a visual equivalent that supports the mood of the script without distracting from it.

V. I collaborate with the other Designers, seeking to bring our collective vision together so it works in harmony. Costumes do not exist in a vacuum, but on a set, among properties and furniture, sound, and light, as part of a consistent visual representation of an invented world.

VI. Whether I am in the position of stitcher, cutter, dyer, crafts worker or designer, I remember that what I am doing is contributing to the greater whole of the production, and must be done with an aesthetic sense in keeping with the performance, not merely my own whims. Designers, therefore, need to communicate the shows design to all the other costumers involved in the process as clearly as possible, so that when design decisions are made at any level of the process, from buttons to butt padding, they reflect the needs of the show or film as a whole.

Beginnings

I have a full compliment of budding costumers this year. Because the annual production is above and beyond my normal obligations as a teacher and lead instructor, I needed help. To find help, I developed an introduction to costuming class. To my surprise, I have nine enrolled students. They are a lively bunch full of creativity and good ideas. I am taking the best of what I have learned in professional theatre to them in hopes that they will catch the bug and let theatre be a part of their lives from this point on.

These students have begun to build a course website, Costume This with Ms. A., viewed the original screenplay of Our Town and experienced a remarkable paradigm shift in creativity after watching the documentary, OT: Our Town.

Watch it here – WARNING – language is a bit tough:

Surprisingly, one of the biggest challenges in theatre is the human ego. We, cast, crew, and production staff are creatively driven peoples understanding that in our own way, acting, sewing, designing, producing, lighting, set design, etc., is performance. All of these separate components must come together into one unit, one success. Egos can make working toward that one unit and one success difficult at best, so I have begun the semester with team building activities.

Our first project was to make a costume accessory out of duct tape. Each student had the option of working independently or with another member of the class. Some worked together and some did not. They had approximately an hour and a half to design and construct an aesthetically pleasing and functional costume accessory. As they showed off their pieces, I began to ask them to think about how they got to their end result. I want them to focus on their process at this point more than their results. This will reveal problem solving skills and creativity required with tight theatre budgets and short lead time.

Inspired by the Duck Brand duct tape prom challenge, I challenged them to design, construct and create a garment in sixty minutes. Seven out of nine students were present to participate and here is their go-go girl result.

We discussed process. They had failures along the way, but worked well as a team to design and problem solve. Each student shared that they felt their ideas and contributions were valued by other members of the group. I was thrilled. This was both an academic and creative success. Students get all of the credit.