I worked as Aiden’s assistant on the creation of the costumes for Rubbish Theatre’s debut performance. Our original themes we were working around were the circus and a dystopian world, so we both created some quick designs based upon our initial reaction to these themes. My design focused on the ability to quickly change a costume to create something new, starting with a dystopian world base, and it being transformed into a circus-esque, elaborate costume.
As visible in the above photo of one of my early designs, the base is a slightly dirty, ripped outfit made with burlap or hessian as per Aiden’s final material decision. Our set is so versatile and adjustable so I thought that our costume should be on par with that. Ruffled collars and sleeves which can be added on and taken off with ease are a pivotal element of my vision, with inspiration from traditional clown costumes.
(alyssa sonley-cooper)
(New Line Cinema, 2017)
Clowns are interesting to me because of their extreme contrast between bringing joy and evoking fear. To some people clowns bring back memories of childhood parties and fun, and to many others clowns are terrifying. Their true identity is concealed in thick make-up and elaborate costumes which is scary as they could be anyone (or anything) underneath the outfit.
I also recently visited a more modern circus in which I took inspiration from a trapeze artist who had lights underneath his costume which were not visible until they were turned on and shone through his trousers. I love the idea of something being there the whole time, yet not being able to see it until the artists wants it to be seen. The notion of hidden messages waiting to be revealed links again to our set in which UV and glow in the dark paint is a feature we are working on incorporating into the set. We have looked at a scene from the film Orphan in which paintings seemingly innocent are revealed to be quite horrific when looked at in a different light, from a different perspective.
(Caitlyn Keefer, 2015)
Works Cited
alyssa sonley-cooper Whiteface Clown Designs [image]. Available from https://uk.pinterest.com/alyssasonleycoo/whiteface-clown-designs/ [accessed 28 May 2017].
New Line Cinema (2017) Pennywise [image]. Available from http://www.mlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2017/03/it_is_back_is_bill_skarsgard_a.html [accessed 28 May 2017].
Caitlyn Keefer (2015) Orphan | ‘Esther’s Paintings’ Scene . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0mSLDeHce0 [accessed 28 May 2017].