Write at least 1 paragraph (4 sentences or more) responding to 1
of the questions below. Then write at least 1 paragraph responding to
another student's response to 1 of the questions.
Questions from Chapter 16:
1.
"Actors must develop the ability to see even casual dress as something historical. To wear a shirt the way they do, with the sleeves rolled up or more than one button unbuttoned at the neck shows they're specimens of the late 20th century. So is the fact that one is wearing a tie but has loosened it." Take a look at what your peers wear on a regular day. Describe what they are wearing from a picture and then explain what this says about who they are.
2.
"When we put on the costumes of another time we're not just 'dressing up.' We're not playing 'make believe.' We're assuming another way of thinking. We're donning an inheritance, intellectual and spiritual." Describe a costume you wore for a play and explain how it allowed you to become a character with a history.
3.
"On stage you're nothing. You are what the clothes make of you. Clothes say something about your self-control, your self-awareness, your social awareness. Clothes say something about your ability to be restrained, your ability to be respectful. When you wear your clothes, you're limited to your own mind, your own memory. It's hard to act. you can be only yourself." Using an experience from the stage explain why that
sentence is true.
4. "I'm very aware that this class is antagonistic to your time. It challenges the suppositions of your time. But you want to be professional, and this is a 2,000-year-old profession." Explain what Stella Adler is saying in this last sentence.
2) In Fiddler on the Roof, I played Golde, a jewish wife and mother of five who works hard to keep order in her house as well as wed her daughters into good families. The costume I wore for Golde was made of layers of rough heavy fabric. There were no fancy colors or adornments. The purpose of her clothing was to keep her warm in her Russian town. The cloth looks worn down and is patched up. This shows that she does not have the money to buy or make a new dress. Even if she did, it would be used for her children. The clothes show her status as a poor family. She is a resonable person and her clothes show that. Her dress reveals her personality and the life she lives.
ReplyDeleteThe costumes for the play are so detailed. I remember how great our costumes were. The certain aspects represented their faith, strife, culture, and lifestyle. That was a great play to be defined by it's costumes
DeleteYPA production costumes are always so intricate. It's amazing. There are so many different pieces and parts that all have some sort of significance. Everything is thought through and tailored for each individual character, and that is one of the shining qualities of a YPA production, I've found.
Delete2) In Beauty and the Beast, I was put under a complete transformation with the best make up I've ever had done. Horns, natty/tangled hair, long claws, a distorted face, and an animal-like body were now apart of my demeanor. I could feel what it was like to look like that, and how horrifying people would find me. The expressions I saw people give to my make-up are the same I would assume were given to the beast. It was easier to connect with the beast's anger, frustration, and self pity. The costume alone connected me a lot more to character because I was literally transformed into a monster.
ReplyDeleteThat costume really was amazing. I agree that sometimes your costume can really make you feel in character. It is the cherry on top if I may say so. Its the element that after all of the rehearsing, memorizing and getting into character that gives you that last push into your character. With certain characters (like the beast), its difficult to become the character because it is so outlandish and unfamiliar. The costume can help to connect you to your character because when you look in the mirror you don't see yourself, you see your character.
DeleteThe most important part of acting is that it's truthful and honest. It makes perfect sense how it's much easier to become the beast once you've donned your costume - once the costume's on, people look at you differently, people judge you, people are frightened because you're not normal. You wouldn't want to walk around with that makeup on in public, because people would point at you and be shocked by you at first, "Who's this guy wearing this mask? What's on his face? What the hell's wrong with him? Why's he doing that?" That would be the reaction of any person outside of your production, and so it makes perfect sense to channel how people would feel about your makeup into how people would feel about seeing the beast. It's using natural reactions to create truth. A la, acting.
DeleteIt's very important that you relate and connect with your charecter. You doing that through the costume is brilliant I think. Feeling like the beast did, and kind of seeing what his experiances were like must have helped tramendously and made for a fun role.
Delete2. In "Noises Off" my costume for Belinda was fairly simple but I know that the cast kind of weighed in, especially Hannah Bohne. When it came down to the dress that was fine, it was classy and would fit both the character and my character's character. The same with the green knit blazer, the only thing with that was that it had to match my Fredrick. However, the choice in stockings was something that Hannah and I both thought brought out our characters. We didn't want to both have the same color stockings, and eventually we decided that for me to have nude would make me seem more classy, and Hannah's black would add to the promiscuity of her character. While the costume was indeed supposed to be a costume for my character, I could imagine that this was something Belinda would actually wear, it was very put together and very classy almost.
ReplyDelete4. The point is that if you want to get to real acting, at the professional level that we desire to be at, then we have to put in the time to get there. This is a profession that has spent 2,000 years evolving and becoming more refined in what works and what doesn't. Over the span of that time so many methods have emerged and so much has become known about it, but we have to be willing to put in the time to learn all of that information so that we can be at the professional level. Yes, it takes us a few hours to read this book, a few more hours to do these blog posts, and then thousands of hours to master the knowledge that's contained here - but that's the point. We have to spend those thousands of hours because we're mastering 2,000 years of technique and evolution.
ReplyDelete1. I have one specific friend who very often will wear a skirt and high heals, nearly every day, and at first it may come off a little different from everyone else. However, I realize that it shows the fact that she seems more mature, and safisticated than others. It makes her look important when she needs to be, and when she needs to look formal orneeds to dress for any ocassion, she's normally just already dressed for it naturally.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm pretty sure we all know what "friend" you're talking about :P
Delete2.) This idea would be most applicable to when I played Montano. Even though it seemed to me as if almost everyone in that play was wearing more or less the same basic costume (those poofy white shirts coupled with white tights and some form of vest to tie it all together), it makes sense because the majority of the characters were government men or military men. The costume I wore was just that, something that identified me as someone who was highly disciplined and self controlled, while being fashionable and somewhat formal. In terms of creating a history, it illustrated to the audience exactly what they needed to about Montano, from his government position to his high sense of pride and justice, the costume prompted the way I walked and talked while in character.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that the way the costume fit also played into your character. From experience I know that when you wear a corset or tight fitting top, like the vests seemed to be, you tend to stand a little straighter. With a Shakespearean costume, you're often restricted in places you're not used to being restricted--stomach, feet because of the small shoes, calves where the pants cut off. You're forced to move in a certain way, and I find that makes your movements more meaningful. All of this helps to present a 'highly disciplined and self controlled' character.
Delete2. I had the supporting role Catherine, Myrtle's sister, in "The Great Gatsby", and her costume was very revealing to not only Catherine's ideals, but the ideals of her time. I had two costumes for her- a daytime outfit, and an evening outfit. The day time outfit was a black knitted dress that was tight, but at the same time loose, a little bit low-cut, but still longer than my knees. In the 1920's, women began to experiment. While dresses, compared to today, were still conservative, women, specifically flappers, began to let loose, roll their stockings down, show some skin, wear shorter dresses. The 1920's was a happy time for America. We had just finished the Great War, life was becoming easier, and the economy was booming. People, young people in particular, were tired of sticking to stodgy old conservative standards, so they let loose. Catherine was a character who wanted to have fun- obvious from her use of alcohol and drugs throughout adaptions. Her history was sad, a girl from the middle to lower class who could never have fun. But now, with the prosperity of the 20's, she could dress up, go to parties, act as though she ruled the world, play with the big boys. My second outfit was a short, glittery, sparkly, bedazzled, beaded dress that I wore for the party scenes. That an a feather in my hair, I was ready to party until dawn. By all accounts, Catherine, like most people of her time, didn't care. The sad times were over, and now was the time to party and be young. Catherine showed this through her clothes, her actions. She was a flirt, a party animal, an adventurer, testing and experimenting new things. Through her relaxed and wild wardrobe, we are able to learn that Catherine was wild, and like so many people of her generation, ready to have some fun.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with this translation of the character on every level, but I'd like to also provide another possible interpretation. I saw both Myrtle and Catherine as the selfish, party focused individuals that they were depicted as in the play, but I think the costume is indicative of taking the new culture too far. Catherine probably couldn't afford those dresses. We don't know very much about her, but considering how desperate she was to impress those of a higher social and economic status than herself, I think her easy-going attitude and wild personality is a front. She represents the farthest reaches of those who had rejected the conservative ways of the past, and instead of having a healthy fun/serious relationship with life, she is destructive to herself and those around her. This can be seen in her support of her sister's debauchery and unfaithfulness to her husband, as well as her tendency to try to corrupt others. I don't know where she got the money for those dresses, but regardless their meaning to me remains true: she's awful. Which is why Katie Fapp played her so well (:
DeleteOh stop with your flattery, Keenan, you'll inflate my head...
Delete2. In the Great Gatsby, I played Meyer Wolfsheim, a business associate of Jay Gatsby's, who was a bootlegger and a notorious mobster. My costume for Wolfsheim consisted of a gray buttoned shirt, black dress pants, suspenders, nice shoes, a tie, a white fedora, and a big cigar I would constantly pretend to smoke. It was a really snappy costume. This costume showed that Wolfsheim was a big shot, a man of wealth and power. He wasn't just some poor shmuck, no. He was a smart man, a man who could cheat the system and get away scot free. He was morally ambiguous, yet appeared amiable and sociable. And I felt his costume reflected all that, with the fancy cigar he would smoke, and how nice and snappy he dressed. Meyer Wolfsheim was a smooth criminal, and I feel my costume captured that.
ReplyDelete1. In this picture two people are wearing very loose shirts—one of them is a tank top and the other is a t-shirt. They are both wearing denim shorts with leather belts. Another girl has on a dress with a deep v-neck that cinches around her hips. The last girl is wearing a flowy skirt with a ribbed tank top. All four of them are wearing either sandals or flip flops. Alright, so I would think that looking at this picture that the majority of the girls dressed for comfort. The loose shirts and flowy skirt I can say are much comfier than lets say the deep v-neck dress. I can also say that looking at the picture it is probably hot outside because everyone is wearing something light (fabric wise). Obviously from the photo these girls are from the 21st century and are not apart of any royal family or even upscale American family for that matter. Their clothes show that they’re most likely from the middle class. You could probably assume that the girl in the dress cares more about how she looks. The girl in the skirt might be the same way. Wearing a dress or a skirt requires you to keep your legs closed when sitting down and in my experience you hold yourself a little higher when you wear them because people typically notice the change in attire. One might also assume that these girls are fairly confident in themselves because they aren’t trying to conceal themselves behind their clothes. Anyway, If I can assume that much about this group of girls based on their clothing it just goes to show how much clothing can tell about a person or a character.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Makenna's description about these girls. From her description, it's very obvious that these girls are aristocracy, but they're not peasants, either. The first two sound like a typical teenage girl from 2013; I can nearly imagine the keds and iphones sticking out of their too-small pockets, and her description of the skirted girls holds true too. I know that when I wear a dress, I feel more important, and even though it sure isn't one, I like to pretend that I'm the Duchess of Cambridge or something of the like. The abolishment of dresses/skirts from the everyday wardrobe has in return sort of created a feeling and way of behaving when you do wear them.
DeleteVey good deductions, Makenna. The fact that you got all that from just their clothing really says how much clothing can tell you about a person. It can tell you what kind what they like, what kind of economic background they come from, how they feel about themselves. and a bunch of other things. You can learn a lot about a character just by what they're wearing, and that's one of the reasons why costumes are a really important part of plays, TV, movies, and etc..
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