Rehearsal Clothes

Next week, I will attend the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.  I don't get to go often.   But since I am now working only one job and since it is happening in Los Angeles, I will be able to attend the whole festival.  I am very excited because I will be able to see some excellent productions from colleges across our Southwest region as well as student projects in all aspects of theatre design.  There are also a ton of theatre workshops.  Three days of exciting theatre activities right in my own backyard.

I am going to present a workshop at the festival on the correlation between costume design and developing a character as an actor with an emphasis on the importance of appropriate rehearsal clothes for actors.  This was my masters' thesis and a particular passion of mine.

As I've written before, I didn't intend to get into costuming.  Being a woman of size, I was pushed there by producers and directors who didn't want to have to take responsibility for making sure my clothes fit.  When they found out I could sew, they just handed me the whole shebang.  And so I became an actor who designs costumes.

What I found out as I began to learn more about costume design is that the skills that make me a good actor also makes me a good costume designer.  Clothes are an important part of our personality.  They are the first clue the world has about who we are and what we feel about ourselves.  We want to think that the world doesn't judge us on our externals, but reality proves daily that it does.  A costume designer trades on clothing stereotypes to help the audience understand the characters in a play.

A smart actor learns to work with their costumer to help create the appropriate "skin" for their character.  That doesn't mean that they tell the costumer what to design.  Each member of the theatre team must be allowed their own creativity.  But a savvy actor will know how to collaborate with the costume designer so that the designer understands the actor and the character.  That way both actor and designer get the visual effect they desire.

Most importantly, an actor will rehearse in clothing as close to his/her final costume as possible knowing that the clothes will inform the character.  This is important for more than period pieces.  We all know that undergarments like corsets, girdles, etc., change how you move.  Shoes do as well.  But even in contemporary clothing, what you are wearing will make a difference in how you move.  And physical movement is an important facet defining a character.

I could go on and on about this...I told you I was passionate about the subject.  I'll go into it further at a later date.  Just let me say today that I hope I have people in my workshop.  I'm a little afraid no one will attend.  Learning to use clothes as a tool for character development can make a difference between an okay performance and an outstanding one.  So I can wait until next week.

Theatre vs. Film/TV

Recently, I was talking with a student about his career goals and he told me he was going to teach because he wanted to stay a theatre actor.  I was intrigued because, of course, we live in a city dedicated to film and television.  Our discussion caused me to consider why I chose to come to LA to pursue an acting career when I, too, really love theatre.

My first calling was to theatre when I was sixteen.  I am theatre trained.  My early professional career was in regional summer stock.  I love the synergy that happen between actor and audience in live theatre.  I am passionate about the process.  Still, when the time came to choose between New York and Los Angeles...theatre or film and television...I chose LA.

My reasoning was this.  I've always been jealous of my visual art, writer and musician friends.  They have a permanence about their work.  When they have finished creating, they have a painting or sculpture, a story or a composition.  When I finish my work as a theatre artist, it's gone.  It can't be repeated.  Theatre is ephemeral because of the audience factor.  No two audiences are alike and each audience's interaction with the actors in a performance makes for a different show every night.  I longed to have something to mark my creativity.

Film and television does that.  When I have finished my work, I can look at it and reflect on it, critique and, hopefully, improve my technique.  I can go back in time and watch early work and see how I have changed (again, hopefully for the better).  It is, in a sense, my shot at immortality.

The downside is that film and television performance are contrived by someone other than myself.  The director, the director of photography, the editor all influence my performance with how they cut the piece.  Most times, only a portion of my full performance makes it to the screen.  Sometimes, my best work lays on the cutting room floor.

Theatre gives me the control of my acting.  My whole creation makes it to the stage.  The audience response will shape my performance, but I can also shape the audience's response.  It is the synergy that makes the magic.

As I ponder on whether or not I made the right choice, I can't tell you which craft is more engaging for me.  To be honest, I like them both.  Just wish film and television liked me better.  At least I have a little bit of immortality.  Maybe that will be enough.