Period Costumes
Around the world, theatre designers and directors have grappled with how much period is too much when they stage productions set in historic times. Auckland Theatre Company’s veteran designer Elizabeth Whiting, who has designed costumes for over 80 productions for the company since its first show in 1993, has worked with enough directors to be clear on what works for audiences.
"A period costume - for example Shakespeare, done in Elizabethan style - is beautiful..."
“A period costume - for example Shakespeare, done in Elizabethan style - is beautiful. But it doesn’t make you think about the type of person the character is, or think of what’s really happening to them,” she explains. “What is more interesting for an audience is some ‘trigger’ ideas. Take apart a period costume and choose the thing that sets that trigger – big sleeves, a corset, long hair for a man – but then put it into a contemporary context. It makes it more interesting for the audience, but then you can set the status of the character with modern things, like baseball caps and sneakers for one, suits for another.”
Oliver Driver in Auckland Theatre Company's 2004 production of Caligula
Whiting, learned her craft under the late Eve Schlup at Theatre Corporate, a theatre legend who had been pattern-making since the 1930s. “She was the most amazing woman, she sort of adopted me, she taught me the craft.”
Her first costume designs were for the much-loved Limbs Dance Company from the late 1970s to mid-1980s. Designing for dance and opera (she has costumed the New Zealand Opera since 1995), means that Whiting brings her understanding of how a costume must work for dancers’ movement or a singer’s breath to theatre.
“I like reading history, the thing I like is the research, seeing what people wore and why,” says Whiting. “Then I change it and modify it so that it is relevant to a modern audience. But period can seperate people from the content, they are just looking at pretty pictures. Audiences need to know who the people are.”
"I like reading history, the thing I like is the research, seeing what people wore and why..."
Elizabeth Hawthorne in Auckland Theatre Company's 2011 production of Mary Stuart.
Different directors have different creative processes, says Whiting. For some shows, the gestation period can be as much as six months, and she can be working on three or more productions at one time. Sometimes a director can have a clear vision that is shared with all the creative team - sets, lighting, costume and music - while for others each team member starts independently, sharing evolving ideas and brainstorming together to arrive at the mix of period and modern that fits the production.
Auckland Theatre Company's 2017 production of Amadeus
Auckland Theatre Company's 2005 production of The Duchess of Malfi
Amadeus was fashion designer Adrian Hailwood’s first time designing for Auckland Theatre Company. Director Oliver Driver gave Hailwood and set designer Ella Mizrahi an open brief. Hailwood brought his background in art direction for film and television commercials as well as years of staging catwalk shows at Fashion Week.
“Technically, after staging fashion shows for 15 years I’m very aware of movement and construction, for actors to be able to breathe and move,” he says. “Theatre is doubled up, larger than life because they’re on stage, so things like the fabrics and cuts are exaggerated, it needs that for lighting. For a period piece you can go full throttle with creativity, whereas with fashion ready to wear it still has to sell at the end of the day.”
While Hailwood prepared his first designs for Amadeus without knowing the cast, Whiting likes to create costumes with the specific actor in mind, finding it difficult to to design for someone she doesn’t know. She’ll introduce key pieces to the rehearsal room so that actors can use the costume to help create their character.
"Technically, after staging fashion shows for 15 years I’m very aware of movement and construction, for actors to be able to breathe and move."
Lisa Chappell in Auckland Theatre Company's 2017 production of Peer Gynt [recycled].
“I like the actor to personalise the costume, for women the corsets or skirts become part of their personality, even the shape of a neckline or a collar, or a shoe. I get footwear as fast as possible into the rehearsal room, as soon as they’re on the floor,” she says. “I test it out in the rehearsal process, I go in to watch the piece and sometimes modify the design to enhance the character. I explain why they’re wearing something they’ve never worn before to help find something in the character.”
Whiting so believes in the transformational power of the costume that she makes a point of not giving the actors the final costume, with hair and makeup, until they go into final technical rehearsals, on stage.
“Something magic happens at the theatre. It’s a wonderful process. They stand in the mirror and realise who they are."
“I like the actor to personalise the costume, for women the corsets or skirts become part of their personality, even the shape of a neckline or a collar, or a shoe. I get footwear as fast as possible into the rehearsal room, as soon as they’re on the floor,” she says. “I test it out in the rehearsal process, I go in to watch the piece and sometimes modify the design to enhance the character. I explain why they’re wearing something they’ve never worn before to help find something in the character.”
Whiting so believes in the transformational power of the costume that she makes a point of not giving the actors the final costume, with hair and makeup, until they go into final technical rehearsals, on stage.
“Something magic happens at the theatre. It’s a wonderful process. They stand in the mirror and realise who they are."
Whiting makes an exception to her interpretative version of history only when she is designing for historical New Zealand drama. There she feels it is important that audience get an accurate,informed view of our history, as they often see so little of it.