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Costume Collage
Arizona Essential Standards
     Analyze scenes for artistic and technical requirements; develop designs based on musical and visual arts principles that meet the requirements of the scene.
Materials
 Hats, scarves, material, glue, construction paper, markers
Warm-up
     Lay out hats and scarves on a table or on the floor and ask students to choose a hat and/or scarf.  Ask students to think about the type of person that might wear these articles of clothing and to explore the posibilities.  Next, have students focus on one character and create a tableaux of that character to show the class.  Discuss choices with the group.  Were some characters more obvious? More perplexing?  Did anyone stump the class?
Costume Collage
     Discuss elements and principles of costume design.
     Have students create collages using fabric, markers, and paper.  The collages might reflect the mood of the character they previously created, the character in a specific time period, an abstract interpretation, or any other mode they choose.  Students will be expected to explain and justify their choices.
Collaborative Display
     Students will share work with peers and have the opportunity to comment on designs, offer input/suggestions, incorporate ideas into their own designs, and discuss aspects of the design process.
 
 

Costume Design : Making & Justifying Choices

OBJECTIVES:
The student will:
-Recall, and demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles of design discussed in previous lessons
- Use his/her understanding of these elements and principles to create a "costume collage" for the character  he-she has been developing in scene study
- Justify his/her choices

I. WARM-UP:  THE HAT GAME
a) Before students arrive, arrange various hats on a table at the front of the room.
b) Ask students to choose a hat and decide who might wear it (what type of person? how does this person look? sound? walk? what might he or she say?)
c) Have each student choose a cap and explore its possibilities (play the role of a character who might wear it).
d) Have each student choose one character who would wear the cap he/she has chosen and create a "snapshot' of that character for the rest of the class to view.
e) Discuss choices.

II. CREATING A COSTUME COLLAGE:
a) Review the elements and principles of design
b) Explain the day's project: Students will create collages using fabrics they feel would be appropriate for their characters' costumes in the scene they are rehearsing

III. ASSESSMENT & CLOSURE:
Create an "art gallery." Have students display their collages on the classroom wall and discuss the choices made. Discuss ways in which the collages may be useful to them as designers.

Examples previously used:
Please create a costume collage for one of the following characters.

Character                                                            Play
Walter                                                                    Hey Little Walter
Nicky                                                                     Hey Little Walter
Owen                                                                     The Foreigner
Charlie                                                                    The Foreigner
Andrew Rally                                                          I Hate Hamlet
Dierdre MacDavey                                                  I Hate Hamlet
George                                                                    Our Town
Emily                                                                       Our Town
Puck                                                                        A Midsummer Night's Dream
Romeo                                                                    Romeo and Juliet
Juliet                                                                        Romeo and Juliet
Mercutio                                                                 Romeo and Juliet
Laura                                                                      The Glass Menagerie
Tom                                                                        The Glass Menagerie
Anna "the Pig Woman"                                            What I Did Last Summer
Grace                                                                       What I Did Last Summer
 
 
COLOR - students can find pictures and glue them to paper

From the magazines find a color or pattern that suggests:
Elegance       Mystery        Danger      Sadness          Comedy         Romance
 

FABRICS FOR CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERISTICS
            (use characters familiar to the group you are working with)
From the fabric bins (if you have them - otherwise any scraps will do), find and cut available swatches that suggest the following types of characters and tape/staple/pin them on sheets of paper.  Label each swatch. (choose 2-3 for each character):

A heroic protagonist from a Greek tragedy (e.g., Oedipus, Antigone)
specify character:________________

Katherine from Taming of the Shrew  (set in Renaissance Padua):

Lady Macbeth from Macbeth (sleepwalking scene)
 

A rich but gaudy dresser who wants to impress others (comic figure, 1600s, i.e., Mrs. Jourdain)

Katherine from Taming of the Shrew (set in modern day US):

David or Annie from Ile (specify which character:___________

                                                                                      Developed by S.N.R.
 
COSTUME HANDOUT