Costume Designs for "Marble Cities" by Theater Ninjas

I was hired as the Costume Designer for the Fall 2012 show by Theater Ninjas, Marble Cities. Marble Cities is a devised show created from the ground up through workshopping with the actors. This was the first time I had worked on a devised show, and it was a whole new process from what I've been used to.

Usually, when I design a show, I get a script, and I read it several times, scouring it and taking notes for every little hint about the characters in it - their appearances, their personalities, their pasts, their futures. I incorporate all of that into the design of the character, and I try to hear the rhythms in their voices and create from the inside out. With a devised show, I'm hired, and there's no script. I receive character descriptions and an idea of the direction that the director wants to go in with the characters.

Also in the devised theater process, the actors have a gigantic share in the creation of the character that they're playing, so it was necessary to meet with each of the actors about their character and get a sense of the direction that they were thinking of taking them. I asked them questions about their characters like their favorite color, or if there was a certain element that they aligned with, or if they had a "totem," be it animal, vegetable, mineral. I got a variety of responses that were great to work from. I also took photos of each cast member, and I asked them to assume the body language of their character. I used these photographs as referneces in coming up with character renderings for each of them, and they gave me further clues as to who these characters were. I made full-color illustrations of the characters in order to give the director as much of an idea of the direction I was leaning in for each character as possible. One challenge of costuming an eight person cast show with a smaller theater company is staying in a budget. The fully realized renderings were one way I tried to keep costs down by being specific, which would hopefully cut down on the number of items I would end up buying for the show that might not be returnable if they ended up not being used.

I've created a gallery of illustrations and photographs for the characters where I write about the thought process (and in some cases, evolution) with each one. for those who want to explore some of the details of the world of Marble Cities. You can reach it by clicking on the rendering of Ray Caspio as The Magician below:

Pencil, ink, Photoshop ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012