Expression Through Costumes by Michaella Robertson

Expression Through Costumes

Theatre Arts Standards:

TH:Cr1.1.HSI a. Apply basic research to construct ideas about the visual composition of a drama/theatre work. b. Explore the impact of technology on design choices in a drama/theatre work. c. Use script analysis to generate ideas about a character that is believable and authentic in a drama/theatre work.

TH:Cn10.1.HSI a. Investigate how cultural perspectives, community ideas and personal beliefs impact a drama/theatre work.

Objective: Students will understand how visual composition of costumes influences audiences by creating their own clothing Pinterest board for one of the characters in the book Speak.

Materials: Computer Lab Use for Students, Speak Costumes PowerPoint, Students need to have/make Pinterest Accounts, a Google Doc with 5 pages with the headings of the following characters: Melinda, Rachel, Heather, Mr. Freeman, and David, a Pinterest Board of clothing items already created for an example.

Hook:

10 Minutes  

Explain to students that you are going show them some pictures and you want them to analyze them. Start by showing students the Speak Costumes PowerPoint.

Ask the following questions on each slide:

        What are your first impressions of this person?

        What can you learn about them by looking at their clothing specifically?

Ask the following questions at the end of the slide show:

How does clothing allow us to express ourselves?

How can we use these perceptions of clothing when designing costumes?

Explain to students that through costumes an audience member is able to make perceptions of the characters that we put on stage. The way we present a character can change how the audience sees the character.

Back-Up Plan: If there is not a way for the instructor to have access to a projector/computer images from a magazine may be used. These can be shown by the instructor or magazine clippings can be passed around and students can peruse them and answer questions on a picture that the choose.

Adaptations for Diverse Learners: This activity can be done in small groups for students that have a difficult time with large group discussions. These answers can be written down for certain students if you want to monitor their progress because they don’t participate in large groups. Another way to do this is with a word cloud on the board with individual pictures taped on certain boards or spaces on the board. This allows those who have a hard time creating full sentences to just come up with one word. Gifted learners can find their own images and then come up with their own thoughts of the image.

Character Swatches: ­

20 Minutes

Have students get into pairs. Each pair will go to http://examples.yourdictionary.com/character-trait-examples.html which is a website of lists with various character traits. Explain to students that they will take two traits from this webpage (preferably from separate lists) and write a short character description. This character description should only be a couple of sentences and should include a name, age, place of origin, and anything else inspired by the combination of the two traits. No more than 4 sentences.

For example, I could choose charming from the “If a story character is a romantic interest list” and then unforgiving from the “Some character traits can be bad” list. Then I would write my character description to say

Our character we’ve created is named Boston; He is a 26-year-old working at a tech company. His traits are charming and unforgiving. He lives in San Francisco.

After each pair has created a character description using two of the character traits explain to them they are now each going to choose a swatch that now represents this character. Partners in the pair will now be looking for their own swatch for the same character that they have created. Ask students if they know what a swatch is—Swatches are samples of fabric that costume designers are able to look at and often feel when looking for fabrics.

Have students go to https://swatchon.com/shop/ here they are able to go through many pages of swatches and find one that they feel like best represents their character. When they find the swatch that best represents their character have them write down a couple of sentences and the swatches product number.

When everyone has finished, explain to students that each pair is going to come up and share what their character description was and then using their product number I can pull up their swatches and they can both share why the each choose their swatch.

After going through everyone ask the following questions:

        Why were we to express meaning with swatches?

        Why were we able to have multiple swatches for one character?

        How do we use this expression of color and texture in our own lives?

Check in with students by having them come up with a one sentence answer to the following question. How can we use costume design to express meaning in productions?

Routine and Procedures: If students have a blog that they use for their work for this class these character descriptions, swatches, and their reasons for their choice can be put up on the blog. The swatch images can be saved or copy/pasted.

Back-up Plan: If students can’t use computers or you don’t have access to these websites. You can bring in swatches that students can interact with. If students have access to smart phones they can take pictures of found textures/colors to become their swatch. You can also print off handouts with the lists of characteristics.

Adaptations for Diverse Learners: If students have a hard time writing the description does not need to be written, but it can be delivered orally. Then focus on the images in this project instead of what is written; the idea is that the image/swatch conveys meaning even more than words do. You can also keep students paired up for when they find their swatches to pair a stronger student with a student who struggles. Gifted students can do multiple character descriptions and swatches. They then can compare the similarities and the differences of the two swatches they chose and why they are different.

Character Boards

10 minutes

Prior to class create a google doc with 5 pages with the headings of the following characters: Melinda, Rachel, Heather, Mr. Freeman, and David.

Explain to students that they are now as a class going to create character descriptions for the characters from Speak to help with their next project. Have students take out their Speak texts and allow them to comment on the document. Ask them that if they want to direct quotes from the book on the google doc to also supply the page number. After the students have supplied a good amount of description move on to the project.

Back-up Plan: If again students do not have access to computer labs this can easily be done on the board, on clipboards that get passed around etc.

Adaptation for Diverse Learners: For students that struggle with writing sentences this activity can be done with a word cloud on the board where students just put one-word descriptors. If writing is again difficult for your students, you can have them deliver it orally and have someone in the class be a scribe to write it down for the class. This can also be done in pairs first and then shared with the class so that you can pair a stronger student with a student who struggles. Gifted students can do this and be required to find quotes to back up their claims.

Belief Board (Adaptation from Intention by Amy Burvall and Dan Ryder)

40 Minutes

Prior to class create a Pinterest board that contains various pieces of clothing. During class show students the Pinterest Board.

Ask students to pick one clothing item from the board and to then think the following questions about that item:

        Which character from the book Speak would wear this piece of clothing?

        What about the item of clothing makes you think about that character?

        If the character were to wear this item of clothing where would they be?

Allow students to share their thoughts about the item of clothing that they picked. Once a couple of students share explain to students that they are going to be creating their own Pinterest boards for one of the characters from Speak.

Explain to students the following guidelines for the project:

·    6-10 pins that depict a type of costume that could be used to express this character on stage.

·    Each choice should be rooted in who character is on the outside/inside. Shows thought about what the character looks like and the characteristics they have.

·    Each pin should be a description of why you chose this look for the character.

After students are done have them each get into pairs again preferably with someone else. When they are in pairs have them share the links for their Pinterest boards with each other. Then each student should comment on 3-5 of their partner’s pins. Remind students to think about the following questions when reflecting on their partner’s choices.

·    What is being communicated through the clothing?

·    Why did my partner make this choice? What were they trying to say?

·    What are the affordances/limitations of costume design?

·    What do I still have questions about?

After students have responded to each other have them in pairs discuss what they each saw in their partners work. Check for understanding by having them come up with a one sentence description together why we use costume design when creating a production. Have each pair share this one sentence.

Before class dismisses make sure that their Pinterest boards are shared with you.

Routines and Procedures: If students have a blog they can share their Pinterest link underneath allowing their partner/instructor to access it easily. This link can just go underneath their character swatches.

Back-up Plan: If students are not able to create a Pinterest Board/Account they can do the same activity by finding images online through Google Images and then importing them into a Word Doc/Blog/Google Doc and then they would caption them as if it were a pin. (Make sure to show them a visual of Pinterest). Student’s comments could then be added to the document after being shared or emailed. If students don’t have access to computer this activity can be done with magazine clippings where they could clip out costumes pieces, glue them to a poster board/ card stock and then add their captions. Student comments could then be on post-its or on another sheet of paper.

Adaptations for Diverse Learners: For students that struggle with writing sentences their descriptions could be just one word that they are trying to represent that they pulled from the class’s list of character traits. Then they later can do the rest of their description orally. This activity can easily be done in pairs so that you can pair a stronger student with a student who struggles. Gifted students can do this and be required to find quotes to back up their descriptions/claims.

       

Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Costume Pieces	Student has 6-10 pins on their Pinterest Board representing their costume choices.	Student has 4-5 pins on their Pinterest Board representing their costume choices.	Student has 2-3 pins on their Pinterest Board representing their costume choices.	Student has 1 pin on their Pinterest Board representing their costume choices.
Description	Makes a complete and detailed description of each of the pins relating it back to the Character.	Makes a detailed description of most of the the pins relating it back to the Character.	Makes a detailed description of some of the the pins relating it back to the Character.	Descriptions are not detailed or complete.
Choices	Costume choices are rooted in who the character is on the outside/inside.	Most of the Costume choices are rooted in who the character is on the outside/inside.	Some of the Costume choices are rooted in who the character is on the outside/inside.	Few/If any Costume choices are rooted in who the character is on the outside/inside.

Tableau Flip Book

Media and Performance images can add meaning, but there are limitations to the work. The first limitation is what media is available. 

Catalog of Critical Creativity Presentation

11.    Potent Quotable—Have students instead of using provide quotes they would find the spine line for one of the characters and through their design show why that is the spine line.

22. Minimalist Poster—Have students create this poster advertising a specific performance or script. Show the main ideas of the script in a simple way.

33. Soundtracking the Moment—Have students create a soundtrack for their monologues. Talk about sound design and how that can change a performance. Do this after they already know how to perform monologues. They could pick a new one or have them do one they already know.  

  4. Chronological Choreography—Depict a timeline for a 10-minute scene in 3 minutes. Focus on the important moments of the script and showcase them using music, movement, and rhythms.

55. Brick-a-Book—Students will create images using blocks, Legos etc. for the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the denouement of a script. Would be really fun to do with a Greek theatre piece tie this into Aristotle and what theatre should look like.

66. Belief Board—Create Pinterest boards for people like Brecht, Stanislavski etc.  

I really like the idea of having students create belief boards for Acting Stylists such as: Stanislavski, Brecht, Uta Hagen, Viola Spolin, Michael Chekhov, Meisner, Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, etc. In the Intention book, they create their own characters and then have them create a Pinterest board for them. But I think it would be a really great way for students to show their understanding of these people and of their methods. However, that means that they would have to have a prior knowledge of who these people are—it can be a basic knowledge and they can do some on their own. They need to know just a basic knowledge to get them started. One thing that they also mentioned that I liked was that we could do an overview of all of them and then have the students build on their Pinterest boards as we go through the different stylings. Or if I wanted just to focus on one of the acting styles we could make a community board that we add to over time. Students could either put their initials at the end of the description of they could each have a number that they are assigned that I can identify them by what they put after the description.

The creative constraints that I would choose to have for this project would be:

·       Collect at least one quote—Not by them, but something that they would agree with

·       One meme

·       One piece of artwork

·       One piece of photography

·       One other object

·       Each pin in the description should be a caption from the Acting Stylist’s perspective.  

Then have students share and comment on each other’s boards. 

Textual Poaching

My Remix of Mucha's The Seasons

Original of The Seasons

The piece of art that I decided to remix was Mucha’s four seasons. Mucha paints and many of his painting feature art nouveau depictions of women. Mucha was trying to convey what the new women was in this time period and to celebrate her femininity. I really enjoy Mucha’s paintings and I find them to be extremely beautiful; that’s why I gravitated towards his work. I chose The Seasons by Mucha because it focuses on the women and different interpretations of the seasons as women. As I thought of Mucha’s work and what he wanted it to represent I thought that I could represent myself in addition to what the new woman is today.

I wanted to represent that the idea of a new woman today is this idea that we have many sides and are dynamic in our thoughts, wants, and needs. I then took this idea and tried to represent this with pieces of Mucha’s work. Instead of having four panels of seasons I wanted to have four panels each with a different side of my personality. I focused on having a quiet, a loud, a giving, and a selfish side. I wanted to highlight that I am all of these things and not just one of them all the time. I did this remix through using Powerpoint it has the easiest way to remove the background and I was able to layer the images. I did this and then when I was finished I put the powerpoint in present mode and then took a screenshot of my screen to create an image. I am a dynamic woman and I have things that I do and love, but I don’t do them all the time. I am not loud all the time and often I enjoy the quiet time that I need. I took things that represent those categories to me and underlaid them to the women from The Seasons. I kept the panels and retitled the panels to represent what I had done.

I felt it was important to document the idea that myself and women in general can be multiple things at the same time because throughout history women are often painted in a what is thought to be the ideal of the time. Often times it focuses on physical beauty and being attractive to the eye. I wanted stray away from what the ideal of this time would be and focus on a real representation of who I am and the idea that women can be more than just beautiful. I wanted my remix to focus on what women are and not just what we want them to be. Women are lots of things and often they aren’t perfect. I included the selfish and giving because this is something that is really prevelant in my life. I am constantly making choices about who I am and what I choose to do; I am not one or the other all the time. I wanted to includes some flaws of mine to ground my work in reality and not what the ideal version of myself would be.

Metaphoric Fashion

We really wanted to comment on how oversexualized women are in comic books and how these strong females are created by men for men. 

Processes

This project ended up not being one that I particularly liked, but at some point, you just have to let the project be what it is.

I wanted to document the process of myself doing makeup because this is a process that I do every day. And it is a very personal process it is something that I do very often and it is done alone. At this time I end up thinking about a lot of different things, wake up/preparing for the day, and critiquing what I am doing. I wanted to explore the inner voices that we have when we are doing our own things. I wanted to do a video of myself doing makeup and then layer voiceovers on top of it to show my inner thoughts as I went through this process.

This was hard because my voiceovers don’t sound as authentic as I wanted them to sound. When the inner thoughts are spoken a lot of times they lose their body as we start to correct and edit them as they are spoken. I tried to keep the editing to a minimum, but without fail, I did it automatically. Listening to your own voice is a little bit weird and made this process of creating harder than I thought it was going to be. Creating this video showed me how difficult it is to create something and to implement it in a way that we are proud of. I really don’t like this video because I don’t like the sound of my voice and there is not a ton that I could do about it. I could change my voice or have someone else speak the lines—but they are supposed to be my inner thoughts and so they must be in my own voice. I think this goes back to our discussion of authenticity. Creating authentic work means creating it in the hear and now and to honor my own creation I needed to be able to use my own voice.

This then leads me to think of my students. That sometimes creating for them is going to be difficult they are going to have to work through things that they may not like about themselves. Whether that be the way that they look, the way they speak, their handwriting, or their thoughts. Without their own voices and work their creations will lose authenticity.

The best way to battle this as educators is to showcase lots of different work and so that students are able to find something that resonates. They can learn that creativity doesn’t just mean that they need to draw or paint, but that they can find something that they love to do or love about themselves to be creative. By doing this, students are able to be creative in their own way. This creates creative projects that are authentic from our students.

Sensory Map of the HFAC

This is our Sensory Map of the HFAC. We focused on trying to show sight, taste, smell, and textures. We wanted to take pictures and video and add sound and music to explore all of our senses.