Northern Vermont's home for contemporary theatre
Vermont Stage
  • Shows & Events
    • Airness
    • Venus in Fur 2023
    • The Bake Off 2023
  • Donate
  • About
    • Equity and Inclusion statement
    • Past Productions >
      • Winter Tales 2022
      • The Pitmen Painters
      • Women in Jeopardy!
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Where
    • Accessibility
    • Safety Precautions
  • Education
    • Vermont Young Playwrights
  • Contact
    • Available Jobs
    • Get Involved

Kate Fulop on Designing the Costumes in Dancing Lessons

3/23/2016

 
What is your role in the production of Dancing Lessons?
I am the costume designer.
 
How do the costumes in Dancing Lessons reflect the lives of their respective characters?
Clothes communicate so much about us on so many levels, from connotations we chose to those that come across unintentionally. For instance, Senga was once successful even though she is now deeply depressed. Her apartment is a bright colorful reminder of who she was, and the clothes are also from her past life. She wears her most comfortable clothes but it is the fact that she stays in pajamas that tells the story. The actress Cael brought edginess to the character that added another dimension to her character’s anger. I supported this direction by choosing to allow her to wear her nose ring and other piercings, and bold haircut. However, I did not trim or maintain the hairstyle to reflect how the character has been neglecting her body.
 
What questions did you ask yourself early on when designing costumes for a show?
What story am I helping to tell? What can I communicate about each of the characters in the choices that I make?  Designing a contemporary show depends on collaboration with the actors, so the first step was getting to know each of the actors and seeing what elements of themselves, if any, they were going to incorporate into the character. I needed to know their way into the play—what they felt was the core of the character.
 
Above all I needed to understand Asperger’s and what that can mean for an individual’s relation to their clothes. Most importantly, I have learned there are no rules, as each person is different. The text offers me some rules: he hates skin to skin contact. One of his tics is adjusting his glasses. I had to ask myself: what about his clothes protects him from the world? Would he choose a sweater that was too large so he could pull the sleeves over the hand to avoid a painful touch on the subway? Was there someone who advised him in his clothes at some point and now he only purchases that one style and brand?
 
Did the designs end up changing much from what you had originally planned?
The designs evolved with the actor’s process. As Andy grew into his character, Ever, and discovered how Ever relates to his world and his tics I began to make choices that would support those decisions. I really appreciated this design collaboration in that Cristina built things into moments—every choice became a part of the story.
 
The biggest design question was the final moment, which is best not to give away! What kind of formalwear does Ever wear? Does he take it too far and rent a tails instead of a tux? We ended up going with the tails as a moment to allow him to make a wrong social choice. For a person who has to study social situations and people, sometimes he shouldn’t get it right.
 
What do you like about Dancing Lessons?
I was immediately charmed by the piece. It’s humorous but full of substance. I think it is a beautiful story about how we all approach the world with the brain we have, each of us with different abilities and limitations.
 
Why do you believe theatre is important?
Theatre is important because storytelling is important. Storytelling is a way of learning empathy, even for those of us who don’t need to study to be ‘neurotypical.’
 

Costume Designer Catherine Vigne  on Becky's Shoes

3/25/2015

 
Gianna Kiehl and Paul SchnabelGianna Kiehl, Paul Schnabel, and Becky's shoes. Lindsay Raymondjack Photography.
Every show I work on has its own memorable and unique costume pieces, whether it be the leather corset and dominatrix boots from Venus in Fur, the see-through shirt from 4000 Miles or the Blue Heron Boy wings from The Quarry. 

In Slowgirl, one piece that stands out for me are Becky's wedges. Becky's shoes became a part of the costume design very early in the process, almost as soon as Robin and I started discussing what Becky should wear. We wanted her to start in a shoe that had the feel that she was dressed very impractically for her surroundings (who wears heels to the jungle?) and for her circumstances (who wears chunky platform shoes on a plane?). We also knew we wanted animal print somewhere on Becky's costume – our own little nod to the idea that she is the “wild animal” coming into Sterling's world – and the shoes seemed like a good place for it to be.

The actual shoes were a bit more difficult to find. I knew what I was looking for – something with animal print and a modern, fashionable, young profile. However, they also had to be relatively comfortable and something in which Becky could physically do everything she needed to do onstage (which included walking on loose surfaces, running, and even climbing over a chair). I scoured local stores and the internet for a shoe that would work perfectly. My search yielded many shoes – everything from booties to flip-flops, with and without animal print, in every heel height. The one that we liked the best after our initial fitting was the one that ended up onstage – metallic copper wedges in a very subtle snakeskin-like texture.

If you have seen the show, this may not sound like Becky's shoes – there is one major change I made to them before they went onstage: I added leopard print to the wedge portion of the shoe. All through the rehearsal period, we watched the shoes, trying to decide if the snake print was too subtle for our animal print idea. We went back and forth – we didn't want the animal to be too obvious, just to be something that we would know and that the odd audience member might notice. Finally, during one of our tech rehearsals, I tried out the leopard print on the heels just to see. As soon as we saw it, it had to happen. The leopard print was perfect. It was just enough animal print, and gave the shoes just that tiny bit of special and outgoing-ness they were missing. That night I added the leopard print and the next morning they paraded onstage into the world of Slowgirl as you see them on Becky's feet today.

Catherine Vigne on costuming Venus in Fur

3/24/2014

 
Picture
Costume design is something that most people do not think about when seeing a play. In fact, the costumes are usually something you should not notice - at least for plays set in the current era. If the design is successful, it will look like the characters are wearing their own clothes, not like each piece has been carefully thought out, chosen, and fit to the actor. Every once in a while, however, there comes a show where the costumes should stick out. Venus in Fur is one of those plays. How often do you get to have modern clothing, period clothing, S&M gear, and a fur cape all in the same show?

As always when I design a play, I started my work on Venus with the script - reading, rereading, and going over all the costume pieces mentioned. After figuring that out, I started my research. For this, I researched each piece of it - the modern, the period, and the exotic - to find a look for each character that could flow seamlessly between time periods and genres. I made tearsheets of my research, and met with Cristina (and the rest of the design team) to share thoughts and ideas. Once we decided the direction we wanted to go, I started actually looking for the costume pieces.

Shopping for Venus was like no other show that I have worked on. The diversity of the things I was looking for was staggering - leather corsets, dog collars, an 1870s dress, a frock coat, servant's livery, as well as modern clothes. Looking for corsets and dog collars, I discovered a different side of Amazon and Etsy - one I never knew existed. Finding the right collar proved to be especially tricky. We wanted a collar that would be sexy enough for the S&M, but still simple enough not to be jarring in the 1870 sections. After days of searching online and in local clothing and exotic stores, I finally went to PetSmart, where I found several actual dog collars that met our needs. As I was checking out, the cashier asked me how many dogs I had. I told her none - I was a costume designer and the collar would be worn by humans. It's not every day you get to say that.

Once the pieces were collected, it was time to have fittings with the actors to put together each look and see how they would flow into the next. Options are always good things to have at fittings - no matter how carefully you choose a costume piece, sometimes things just don't look right when they are on the actor all together. It's always good to have multiple ideas for everything just in case. Through our fittings, we found looks we were very happy with for each character - and their transformations.

Every play presents its own set of unique costume challenges beyond finding the right pieces of clothing. Unlike most plays, although there are many costume changes throughout Venus, the actors do not leave the stage. This presented its own set of challenges - how do the costumes arrive onstage? Do the actors take anything off in order to put on the new pieces or do they layer? What sort of closures are needed on the costumes so the actors can change themselves onstage without help? These are things that we continued to work on and tweak up though our tech rehearsals until we ironed out the kinks in the details of the costume pieces and the changes felt comfortable for the actors.

When you watch Venus in Fur, the characters should look comfortable in their clothing - like it belongs to them. But also watch for the moments when the costumes make themselves known, the theatrical moments where they do stand out - not that you have to look very carefully - they are hard to miss.

    Archives

    January 2019
    September 2018
    April 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All
    Acting
    A Doll's House
    American Hero
    A.R. Gurney
    Art
    Bess Wohl
    Beyond Therapy
    Blackberry Winter
    Christopher Durang
    Costuming
    Curious Incident
    Dancing Lessons
    David Ives
    Designing
    Directing
    Dramaturgy
    Fun Home
    Greg Pierce
    I And You
    Jon Robin Baitz
    Karen Zacarias
    Katori Hall
    Lauren Gunderson
    Liz Duffy Adams
    Mark St. Germain
    Mothers And Sons
    Native Gardens
    News
    Nina Raine
    Or
    Other Desert Cities
    Part 2
    Playwriting
    Q&A
    Slowgirl
    Steve Yockey
    Terrence McNally
    The Bake Off
    The Call
    The Dining Room
    The Mountaintop
    The Quarry
    Tigers Be Still
    Tribes
    Vanya And Sonia And Masha And Spike
    Venus In Fur
    Yasmina Reza

Season Sponsors
Picture
main street landing logo
Picture
Join our mailing list