Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2018 - 38

role-play. Some cosplayers started because of their love of pop culture characters, others began from their desire to
build costumes, and still others desired a
safe space for self-expression. For many,
their first experience in cosplay got them
hooked, and as Hofmann remarks, "Now,
whenever one convention is finished, I
pretty much immediately start thinking
about the next one, which is par for the
course for cosplayers."
The excitement of creating the costumes and the strength and positivity of
many of the communities provides another potential link between theatre and
cosplay. Cosplayers gather at conventions and conferences, like Comic Con
International, for the same reasons that
theatre technicians and designers attend
the USITT Conference & Stage Expo.
These venues allow for artists to gather,
collaborate, inspire, educate, and share.
This sense of support and shared experience keeps creative people coming back
for more in both theatre and in cosplay
because it satisfies a desire to pursue excellence in their craft and engage with an
innovative community.

After working a full week in theatre,
why go home and make more costumes?
What is the draw? Cosplay is a creative
outlet for theatre technicians. Cosplayers
are able to hone their skills and practice
on new materials without the pressure of
achieving stage-ready quality in a specific
timeframe. In the collaborative process
of theatre, many decisions are made before the costumes even enter the shop; in
cosplay, the creative artists make all the
design decisions by themselves. They
use the rigorous and detail-oriented research process that they learned in the
theatre to make those decisions.
"When I work in theatre, I don't
need to research the character; the costume designer has already done that
work for me," points out Chuhkina. "The
higher up I got in the professional theatre world, the more restrictions I felt
in terms of completing a costume. In
cosplay, there is more freedom to think
outside the box in terms of how to make
a costume." The process of building cosplay costumes can take months, a luxury not often found in theatre, and this is
a welcome outlet for experimenting with

new materials, trying state-of-the-art
tools, and creating incredibly accurate
reproductions or original interpretations
of a popular character, such as Fehlner's
design of Post-Apocalyptic Little Red
Riding Hood. Although the process may
take longer, the steps involved from concept to costume are the same in both theatre and cosplay.

Construction Techniques

Hofmann, Fehlner, and Chukhina all
agree that their technical work in cosplay
is very similar to theatre, and they argue
that the development of building a costume is identical. The process is familiar,
tried, and true: research, swatch, choose
materials, pattern, build a mockup, and
do fittings. Stage costumes are built with
durability to last the run of a show and
to be viewed from a distance, but cosplay
allows for highly detailed costumes built
for close-up viewing. Their costumes
only endure minimal wear and tear at
conventions and are sometimes only
worn once.
"The biggest difference I find between costuming for theatre and creat-

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Shakespeare in Love (2017): Kate Mulligan. Photo by Jenny Graham.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2018