Physical Theatre is “an umbrella term for aspects of performance including dance theatre, mime, clowning and traditional pictorial or visual theatre” (Graham & Hoggett, 2009, 23). Physical theatre performances vary drastically, but they all primarily use the mode of physical expressions with the body for storytelling. This also means that costumes for physical theatre are dependent upon the style of movements the piece focuses on. During our physical theatre module at University we were expected to wear loose black clothing with bare feet, so that we could move openly and not be distracted by our clothing. As our company began experimenting with physical movement for the opening of Inka, I envisioned the ensemble would begin with loose fitted costumes of similar colours, which would later break into distinct looks upon meeting each character.

In March I watched Verve’s performance NEVERSINK, which used a variety of dance and physical theatre. Award winning costume designer Jennie Loof, dressed the ensemble in silk and cotton clothing of nude and light grey colours. Her costumes enabled the cast to move freely, with a particularly stunning effect on the female costumes as their trousers and skirts appeared to float with them when they were lifted. Lenka Vagnerova, Verse’s chorographer, wanted to create the “illusion of flying and floating bodies” (Cooke, 2017) which I believe was successfully achieved through both the movement and costumes together.

 – Loof, J. (2018) NEVERSINK [live performance]. Performed by Verve. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

During the second part of the performance, the costumes changed to jeans and t-shirts, with grey socks. This was useful to see, as the cast could still move in these new outfits, however it didn’t capture the same elegance or solidarity that was previously present. Verve’s performance inspired my idea for the cast to wear long and wide fitted trousers to capture the same floating look for our lifts.

Sourcing clothing from local shops: Quality is key

After the success of our Quiz night fundraiser, my costume budget was raised to £170, as my original budget only allowed me to reuse our own clothes. I began searching in local stores so that I could see the actors in the relevant styles, with the option of taking them back if they didn’t fit the overall picture. Chelsey, Our stage manager, held a production meeting for us all to present our developing ideas to her alongside our director. In preparation, I added pages to my costume book to show my new found inspiration from Verve theatre. I made collages to present loose styled jogging trousers for the male cast members and culottes for the females to wear. The trousers I found varied from £10 to £30 as I knew that I needed to keep them relatively cheap if each actor were to have the same style. I sourced a similar style in Primark and I brought along two pairs of culottes in pastel blue and pink colours for the cast to try on.

  

 – Culottes from Primark, both £10 each.

Seeing the cast members in these I realised that although the wideness of the leg was the look I wanted, the material was too see-through and the zip up waist was too restricting for the movement. Marcus and I agreed that they were not of good enough quality to show the professional standard we are after. This meant that I needed to shop for higher priced culottes and therefore the tops would need to be cheaper.

During the meeting, I discussed having the cast in loose styled tops such as the one below.

 – Women’s top from Primark, £4

This led me to conclude that although the male characters need looser fitted tops, there are a number of problems with dressing the women in tops that could easily fall low or come up during lifts. The meeting proved extremely useful, as it helped me discover that we not only need clothing with better material, but I also would need to style the male and female characters differently for practical reasons.

Sourcing men’s clothing from local stores

I originally tried matching the pastel blue colour theme with men’s tops and jogging bottoms to see how the cast would look as a solid unit. However, I quickly discovered the difficulty with finding plain sports clothing, as almost all of the quality clothing was branded with logos.  It was still useful for me to see that within the stores it was the darker colours that stood out, particularly navy, which helped inspire my new look for Isaac.

 

– Blue and grey men’s tops from Sports Direct, £5 each.

I also found within later rehearsals that if the male cast members were to wear loose jogging trousers they needed to be without exposed zips. I discovered this as Charlie frequently wore jogging bottoms and his zip got caught on our hair during a lift. I therefore looked into changing the idea to Will, playing the father, wearing long but smarter trousers while Charlie, as Issac, wore shorts to give him a younger look.

 Sourcing clothing online:An unexpected discovery

Knowing that my ideas needed to change, I began searching online for costumes for more choice. I then brought my online purchases to rehearsals for the cast to try on. Due to my inspiration from Verve’s performance, I bought dusky blue and charcoal coloured culottes. I also ordered bodysuits for the female cast members to try on as they are fitted around you so would not be exposing. I always ensured that before I made a purchase the cast agreed the outfits would be practical for movement. I experimented with buying Inka the opposite colours to see if she successfully stood out from the ensemble.

Here in an attachment of my online purchases that the cast tried on before rehearsals.

Culottes and bodysuits the cast tried on

Cast members trying on culottes and bodysuits

– Bleeding Edge Theatre Company (2018)  Inka [testing out costumes] Lincoln 15 May 2018.

I was disappointed with the quality of the dusky blue culottes as they were made of thin material that reminded me of pyjamas. Upon seeing the cast in the same colours, it didn’t look as visually pleasing as I had expected. This was my big breakthrough as costume manager, as my original idea of having everyone in the same movement costumes didn’t seem to work. As our script held strongly narrative sections, having the cast in the same costumes doesn’t fit as they weren’t seen to embody their characters appearance. This was useful to see, as I adapted my idea of having the cast in pastel colours into everyone wearing slightly different designs and colours based around their character. However, they still need to be non-restricting and look like a collective unit when the cast are all together for the movement sections. Having each performer in different colours also meant that when we are all together doing the same movements we stand out which for our piece fit well. Practically it also made sense to have the cast in slightly different designs, as there were a lot of cases where the colours I liked didn’t provide everyone’s size.

I realised that I couldn’t put my full trust on online stores to provide the quality clothing I wanted, as I was looking for the lowest priced bodysuits due to my budget. Purchasing lots of different clothing online also began costing me a large amount due to ordering multiple sizes and colours for each cast member. I therefore knew that I needed to make detailed descriptions of the clothing I wanted and have the actors try on my costume ideas in store with me present before I made final purchases. I went back to my original character designs to help shape something that was in-between a realistic drama costume and one for physical movement. This led me to create mood boards for each character that had set colours for their costume and make-up to symbolise or reveal an aspect about them.

  New Inspirations

To capture set character looks, I took inspiration from Frantic Assembly’s costume designer, Francis O`Conner, within their performance Things I know to be True (2016). The actors could still do lifts and physical movement while in more ‘normal’ clothing which wasn’t specifically designed for physical theatre. Although we won’t be able to have added details such as jewellery or jackets, I wanted to use character designs as a form of storytelling rather than just to look unified. Frantic Assembly, like our company, also embrace their mix of different performance styles including dance and physical theatre with narrative techniques. It therefore felt right to embrace how they used costume to show age, status and character relationships.

– Bovell, A. (2016) Things I know To Be True [live performance]. Performed by Frantic Assembly. 

 

Works cited

Bovell, A. (2016) Things I Know To Be True. Available from https://franticassembly.co.uk/productions/things-i-know-to-be-true [accessed 3 April 2018].

Cooke, W. (2017) Verve: Northern School Of Contemporary Dance. Leads: TEF Gold. Available from http://www.nscd.ac.uk/verve/tour-dates/ [accessed 20 March 2018].

Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2009) The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre. London: Routledge.

Figures

Bleeding Edge Theatre Company (2018)  Inka [testing out costumes] Lincoln 15 May 2018.

Loof, J. (2018) NEVERSINK [live performance]. Performed by Verve. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre.

PRETTYLITTLETHING (2018) Women’s Fashion Clothing. United Kingdom. Available from https://www.prettylittlething.com/ [accessed 22 March 2018].

 

– Molly Sharp, Costume designer