Playing In Your Costumes!
The best part of the rehearsal process is that moment when you finally get your costume, the first dress rehearsal. It’s a wonderful moment because it’s like getting to explore a brand new skin for yourself. You get to deal with a new exoskeleton for your character, something they’ve never had before. It can screw you up onstage, but if you take your time, and open your awareness to it, it can inform so much of your performance.
When I get a new costume I spend a lot of time wandering around backstage, seeing if the movements I’ve concocted are going to work in my costume. Then I find what new movements my costume can show me. I love this moment of the process because there’s so much discovery happening all at once, rather than those bolts of lightning you stumble upon from time to time in rehearsals. These costume discoveries happen all at once.
We’ve discussed before that your emotions inform your body and your body informs your emotions. That is, contort your body a certain way and you can illicit a certain emotion, or vice versa. This is quite like that, in that the minute you begin to play around inside your costume you can find new dimensions to the emotions you’ve been bringing to the scenes. Perhaps you find something you’ve never experienced before, or evidence that can validate what you’ve been doing all along. It’s a wonderful time to play and experiment.
So when you get your new costume, even if you’re only getting bits and pieces to rehearse with, spend as much time as you can in them. From the very beginning, make friends with the costumer (this, by the way, is always advisable) and ask very politely when is the earliest you can have things like rehearsal shoes or jackets, vests or hats. When you get them, make sure you ask yourself as many questions as you can about these items. Are your shoes comfortable? How would your character hold their hat or their jacket when these items are off? How would they wear their pants? With suspenders or not? All of these things can tell you a lot, not only about who the character is, but how they move and why. As I said before, it’s a wonderful time of discovery!
So until next time, have some fun playing around in your costumes and see what other external factors can influence how you move and how you feel on stage. And remember, costumed or not, SIN BOLDLY!
P.S. I’ll be writing an article on making friends with the costumers. Trust me. You’ll want to. They’re great people to be on the good side of.
Filed Under Articles, Costumes
Comments
One Response to “Playing In Your Costumes!”
Leave a Reply
I love this website. I’m a beginning actor and so many questions that I’ve had are answered on this site. I agree with this article. It is so much easier in rehearsals when you get into the costume that you will be performing in. The movements become more natural feeling and the words flow better.