Dram 446 Costume Design II
Spring 2010
Character Analysis in a Play for Costume Design
Guideline Sheet
A costume designer must understand the personalities, habits and motivating influences of each
character in a play. Please use this sheet as a guideline to help you analyze the characters in your play.
Once you know your characters you will be able to select appropriate costumes for them.
Please Note:
Costume designers are hired for their originality of ideas. Copying someone else’s ideas is considered
in the industry not only bad and lazy design, but severe lack of originality, as well as being illegal.
Your designs must be original. They must not look like a copy or a variation of someone else’s design.
This is considered plagiarism. To avoid this it is strongly suggested that you do not watch a movie of
your chosen play. Watching the movie of a play makes it very difficult to imagine the characters in any
other type of costume. This makes it extremely difficult to come up with something that is not a copy in
at least some respects to the movie you watched.
For a play your research will begin with the play itself. A good approach is to take notes on each
character as you read the play. Feel free to use commentary study guides, such as Cliff notes or
SparkNotes.com.
1. As you take notes pay close attention to
•any written information such as ‘he takes his hat off.’ This means, of course, that
the costume design for that scene requires a hat.
•comments by other characters that would indicate a color or particular garment
someone is wearing, such as “Let me take your coat,” indicates that a character needs a coat in
this scene.
2. Also take notes about a character’s personality.
•how do they relate to the other characters? such as are they bossy, conniving, sneaky, silly, etc?
•what is their status in the play and their relationship to the other characters? Are they the mom,
the dad, the brother, the commanding officer, the servant, etc?
3. Take notes about the world of the play.
• Where is it set? Indoors or outdoors.
• What is the time period? You may wish to change the time period.
• What is the season? Winter or summer or spring, or fall. This will affect the type of
clothes worn.
Take notes about which scene the costume is for. There are usually several costume changes in a play,
so it is necessary to note on your rendering which scene the costume is used for. This is usually written
on the on the rendering (as well in other costume lists.) The correct way to write this is, for example:
Act 1, scene 4, not a page number, usually. Some plays have only one act, then page numbers are used.
4. Once you have gone through the whole play and found all the notes about the characters, you can
study the notes for each character. Think about what kind of a person he is, and what you think his likes
and dislikes are, and what his habits are. Think of questions that would help you understand his
character and personality, such as:
• Is he the kind of person who likes to sleep late, or is he an early riser?
• Is he a slob or is he very neat and tidy?
• Does he like to control other people or is he easy going?
• Is he manipulative or sneaky, or is he generous or kind?
•etc.
A good reference for this sort of character study can be found in the Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen.
5. Then write out two or three sentences that describe the character’s personality and his relationship to
the other characters.
6. Now you know your character. Now what kind of clothes would this person wear?
His clothes will help express his personality. The costumes will also give clues to the audience about
who this character is. For example,
•if a character is scatterbrained his costume could look scattered. This might be indicated with
an untied shoe and a tie that is askew and a shirt partially untucked.
•If a character is a strong willed, commanding type she might have a very tailored suit, a tightly
controlled hair style.
•If a character is trying to hide something he might have many layers of clothes as compared
with the characters who are not sneaky, who might wear less layers or less complicated garments.
There are many ways to express a character’s personality through his clothes. These are just a few
examples.
The process, in short, is to get to know your character using the steps outlined above, then find
clothes that fit his personality, lifestyle and character.
Dram 446 Costume Design II
Spring 2010
Finding a Metaphor
How to connect your Inspiration and the Play in an Idea Board
Guideline Sheet
The Process:
There are several ways to start your imagination. One method is to use a “found object” as an
inspiration. A found object for a play needs to make sense in the world of the play. You can’t just pick a
random object and force it on the play, but instead find an object that has a connection with the play.
What we are looking for is a metaphor. You may find this is a line from the play.
The first step is to read the play. As you read it, some visual images or associative words may come to
mind. If so, make a note of them, even if they seem quite random. After you have read the play and
taken character notes as explained on the handout “Analysis of a Play for Costume Design- Guideline
Sheet,” then let your imagination start playing with your ideas.
•Think of adjectives or phases that describe or characterize the play for you.
•Write a short synopsis describing the plot. This can be very informal.
•Look for lines in the play that help describe the essence of the play. (For example in Hamlet,
Hamlet is described as a “student of Wittenburg..” Learning and civilization is important to him.
However, he also wants to be a barbarian and kill his uncle to avenge his father’s death. So the essence
of the play for this design was to show the struggle between the civilized Hamlet and the barbarian
Hamlet.)
•Try the “scribble plot” or “Richter scale” exercise. This is where you scribble a line that
expresses what is happening in the play. For example a comedy such as The Importance of Being
Earnest might have loopy, squiggly lines the intertwine with other loopy, squiggly lines, which
represent the cheerful, but twisted, comedic nature of the play.
•Once you have some of these images in mind look for “found objects” that help express these
images. This “found object” may be a particularly pertinent line from the play, it may literally be an
object that you find, lying on the ground, or hanging on a wall.
•When you have a found object think of adjectives or phrases that can express a connection
between the found object and the play.
•Let these adjectives and phrases lead you flesh out your ideas on an idea board. This step helps
to refine and concentrate your ideas and images.
Example:
The example I gave in class was for the play Othello. After I read the play I knew it was important that
Othello be portrayed as a strong character, otherwise the play would be about Iago, who was the
deceitful plotter. So, I was thinking in terms of a strong, positive image that had some kind of weakness
that eventually lead to his downfall. For Othello, his weakness was his jealously which Iago exploited,
and used against him. With this in mind, I was looking through art books (muttering to myself “strong
and weak, strong and weak, how can something be strong and weak at the same time?”) when I came
across a sketch by Picasso of a bullfight. The parallels fit well between Othello and the bull. Othello is
big, strong, commanding and a dangerous enemy. (He is commander of a victorious army, and is well
respected by his men.) The bull is also big, strong, commanding and dangerous. The bull’s weakness is
his eyesight. Since a bull’s eyes are on the sides of his head he cannot see the picador when he stands
directly in front of the bull’s face. The picador eventually kills the bull by taking advantage of this blind
spot. In the play Iago eventually brings Othello down by taking advantage of Othello’s blind spot, which
is his jealously of Desdemona and his belief that Iago is his loyal friend.
Now that I had this image it affected the design decisions I needed to make. For my research I
looked up bullfighting, and especially bullfighting as depicted by artists. I eventually made an idea
board that had a picture of Picasso’s bullfight, and another one from Degas. I found other pictures and
fabric swatches that supported this theme.
Now I had a color palette from the idea board and a theme inspired by my found object. This
influenced my costume design by giving it a Spanish flavor. So, I then researched Spanish costumes of
the era including bullfighting costumes.
Application:
Now you have built the “world of the play,” and you are ready to people it with your characters. So,
your next step is to go to the handout “Character Analysis in a Play for Costume Design”- Guideline
Sheet” to start developing the characters of your play, and deciding what they will wear.
This handout outlines the general steps a costume designer goes through when designing for a play. In this particular
assignment the designer comes up with a concept statement. When designing for a realized production, the director generally
comes up with a concept statement. Or, the director comes up with a general “world of the play” statement, or a metaphor,
from which a costume designer may develop a concept statement to use to inform the choices he/she makes concerning
costume. Please note: there is nothing in here that gives permission to the director to “play designer” and make those
costume choices. Neither is there anything in here that gives permission to the costume designer to force a costume choice
on to a director. This is a collaborative process – everyone works within the “world of the play” to create a world that is
cohesive and coherent. There is no room for prima donna behavior from anyone.
Costume Process
Research and Preparation for Designing
Costumes for a Play
Objective: to organize your process for researching, analyzing, and designing costumes for a play use
the following general outline of the process.
1. Read the play and make an outline or bullet point of what happens in each act (this is handed in with
the rest of the project components on the due date)
a. who is in the act and scene
b. what they do - especially having to do with costume
c. Make a note of every time something happens or is said that concerns costumes.
d. how they interact with the other characters
e. find a line or an image metaphor that will characterize the play and your design
f. express the image metaphor in a concept statement that will drive all
of your costume choices
2. Research
a. Some of your clothing research should appear on you
idea/research board
b. develop idea / research board.
c. manner - including posture. People from different classes and eras stand differently than a
21st century models. Find poses from the era for correct poses and posture.
d. portraits from the era This helps with both a and c.
3. Design
a. Use the concept metaphor based on/inspired by the play which will guide and inform all of
your design choices
b. Factor in the personality and circumstances of each character (social standing etc.)
c. Factor in the world of the play (era, time, place, etc.)
d. Decide what appropriate clothing would be for each character under these circumstances.
3. Draw and watercolor and swatch your renderings.
4. Hand in on display day:
√ 6 renderings with swatches
√ Concept metaphor / research board
√ Concept statement with character descriptions and explanations of
costumes, please refer to example from Othello.
√ Hand written outlines, notes on the play, character analyses, research,
etc. Generally called “Costume Notes”.