Unit 2.2: Staging, Costume and Set Homework

Staging, Costumes and Sets

Many different kinds of theatre companies put on Shakespeare plays from small amateur groups to large professional companies. There are dozens of different stages in preparing for a production such as planning, rehearsing, designing sets and costumes and advertising. Actors have to be chosen for the parts by holding auditions.

Working with the director, the designer creates sets and costumes in keeping with the atmosphere of the play, perhaps historical or modern day, maybe referring to the play’s text for ideas. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example, Oberon lists several forest flowers, including wild thyme, nodding violets and sweet musk roses and the designer will try to recreate them in the set. The designer may be asked to design an abstract set or use objects and lighting in a symbolic way.

Costumes help set a play either in the its original period or in a different time. They are researched, designed, made and then fitted. Suitable fabrics and materials are found which will look good under stage lighting. Costumes are also used for special effects such as making an actor look fatter.

Most actors need to wear make-up, to make sure facial expressions are visible from the back of the theatre. It can also be used to make actors look older, younger, ill, injured, evil or supernatural. False hair may be used to make a false beard, moustache or sideburns.

I think that Shakespeare may die out if it is not updated to suit modern tastes. He would have not intended his play to be like many of the modern interpretations of today, as stage directions were not given so he would have his own setting in his mind, however, the modern directors of these interpretations can come up with how the scene was supposed to look like because of the words from the original play.

Paddy Johnson 10S1