California Costumes Men's William Shakespeare Adult Sized Costumes

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Throughout renowned playwright William Shakespeare’s 38 plays clothing is an integral part of the text [1]. Over the past 400 years various performances of Shakespeare’s work globally have led to various interpretations of his texts and how they are presented to the audience. For example, I have seen an all-female Globe production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ which was set during the Elizabethan era, the late Ninagawa’s epic production of ‘Macbeth’ adorned in the native dress of Japan and a production of ‘Richard II’ which used everyday items such as a ketchup bottle and sponge to symbolise characters in a narrativised version of the play. In each of these examples costume becomes a “visualisation of someone other than the actor [or everyday appliance] who wears it, and the clothing is chosen or designed for this particular theatrical moment” [2].

At the end of the play in Shakespeare’s time, the company would put on a second shorter piece – a farce or a dance. This stopped the audience going home sad if it was a tragedy! The shape of a costume can be as important as the materials you use – something with good lines and fit can also signify an expensive outfit. Please draw your costume designs onto the template provided. You can add colour or written notes if it helps to explain the design.The Costume Store where they are washed and hired out to film, TV and theatre producers, schools, amateur dramatic groups, etc. Try to show how the characters behaved in the context of the plot, scene, or with other characters. We actually see a travelling acting troupe in one of Shakespeare’s plays – Hamlet . A group of ‘players’ appear at court and put on a play. Hamlet gets them to insert a new scene into it – one that mimics the way his uncle killed Hamlet’s father, so that the murder is revealed. Did you know? The audience for this production will mainly be schools and young people from across London and Birmingham, so the mood boards must connect to them. The play was written several hundred years ago, but you can choose any setting you think will engage your audience. Our production is contemporary, but you can take inspiration from any time period or anywhere you choose. Our oldest set of costumes comes from the Benson Company who performed Shakespeare’s plays during the Victorian period.

Costume Design is an important part of creating meaning in a theatrical show. A costume can tell the audience a lot about a character, such as their job, social status, and personality. Furthermore, costumes normally comment on the social, historical, and cultural context of the production. It was quite usual for some parts to be ‘doubled up’ where one person would play two or more characters because they were not on stage at the same time. The plays would be structured to allow for this. Later in Shakespeare’s life he was able to afford more people on stage at once because his company was so successful. In Twelfth Night , for example, nearly every single character is on stage in the final scene, meaning that no doubling up was possible. Peggy Ashcroft was an actor who worked extensively with the RSC throughout her career and one of our paintings, by Ethel Leonine Gabain, depicts her as the infamous character, Juliet. It shows her in an orange velvet dress she wore in 1935, one of many dresses we have that she has worn that we also have in our Costume Collection. The audience for this production will mainly be schools and young people. We would therefore like you to design a set that reflects this. The set needs to be exciting and should have some elements, colours, or shapes that the young audience can relate to. You can take inspiration from anywhere you choose. However, the set also needs to work within the existing Globe space. The main body of our costume collection dates from 1949 to the present day with a wide range of objects. They include the belt Vivien Leigh wore as Lady Macbeth in 1952, made from the pioneering sculpted felt technique developed by our very own Costume workshop in 1950s, and the screen-printed red t-shirt that David Tennant wore as Hamlet in 2008.The audience for this production will be mainly schools and young people. A key consideration for designing these costumes is that the audience must be able to relate to the characters. That means it’s really important to dress the characters in clothes that feel familiar to young people today. Our production is set in the modern period, but like us you can take inspiration from anywhere you choose. The Globe stage is very distinctive. Was the way the actors used it innovative or traditional? Explain how. Monks, A., 2009 The Actor in Costume, ‘Dressing the Audience: A History of Fashion at the Theatre’, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p.34-40. Now design your own poster for the play. Remember that your poster will need to be eye-catching and provide an idea of what happens in the play.