Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1967 - 3

Research in Theatrical Costume
Patton Campbell, New York City
loR, CODE: costume/ musical/ research/ Iibrary/ subsidy

(Mr. Campbell prepared the following report for presentation at the
Princeton Conference on Theatre in Education, sponsored by the U.S.
Office of Education and directed by Professor Alan Downer of Princeton University. Sessions on technical theatre were chaired by Edward
C. Cole. Campbell and other conference participants were charged with
suggesting areas where future research would be most fruitful. TD& T
acknowledges the help of USOE'S Theatre Specialist Dr. Irving Brown
in preparation of this report, and intends to publish similar pertinent
reports as they become available. - Editor)

Joan Diener in the New York company of Man of La Mancha

After the preliminary readings of a script have been completed the research process in theatrical costume design
begins. This is the first and essential step to the other
two which are the making of sketches, and supervision
of the execution of the costumes themselves. Costume research is accomplished in three areas: verbal, visual, and
actual. In literature and in history we frequently find quite
specific descriptions of clothes and accessories. These
can offer beginning clues to form, color, and detail, but
ultimately will want verification from paintings, prints or
photographs of the period in history concerned. Pursuit of
visual material leads to museums and libraries where pictures of any given locale and period in dress are often
available and carefully classified.
The diversification of visual research is one of the fascinations of the costume profession. For Man of La
Mancha, for instance, the paintings of Velasquez were an
obvious and invaluable insrJiration for Quixote's family,
whereas material for Aldonza and the muleteers posed
more of a problem. The amount of source material available for low-life characters in a period production often
seems to be in inverse proportion to the distance in time.
Except for Rembrandt most of history's great painters
would rather portray kings and queens than beggars and
whores. My search led to the sketchbook of the German,
Christoph Weiditz, who visited Spain in 1529. In his
primitive drawings of Moorish peasants I found plentiful
ideas for the rough characters who drink and carouse at
the Inn of La Mancha.
Other productions have led to The Queen -- bound copies
of the English fashion chronicle -- for Douglas Moore's
operatic adaptation of Wings of the Dove, to Kabuki
prints for the New York City Opera's Mikado, or to movie
magazines of the 1940's for small town girls in a musical about World War II.
Ideally, however, one wants to look at actual sources -clothes and accessories which were actually worn in a
given period and place. In New York there are two such
collections which are excellent in scope, organization and
personnel. At the Brooklyn Museum's Design Lab and at
the Metropolitan's Costume Institute it is possible to see
at close hand articles of clothing dating from the Sixteenth Century. One can examine the clothes, put them
on figures, sketch them and ultimately make specific cutting patterns with details of trim to be used in the workroom later on. For productions such as Fallen Angels,
Pinafore, and A Month in the Country these collections have been of enormous value to me.

FEBRUARY 1967

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1967