Costumes: Bouncing Back

So, instead of wallowing in my frustration, I went ahead and started designing costumes for Godspell. I start, as I so often do, on Getty Images (http://gettyimages.com), and started looking at images of folks who fit the general look I want for the characters. I started making some sketches from these, and started adding interesting but simple costume pieces on them.

What I started coming up with was a base costume for each person. The base costume will reflect the character "color" I've come up with, but will incorporate the common, faded theme I'm trying to establish.

For instance, the John the Baptist/Judas character for me is Mr. Grey: someone in limbo, color wise and very neutral. I started him off with a dark charcoal pair of jeans or corduroys, and then gave him a plain cotton or linen long sleeved (but light) shirt. A white belt, black work boots (or Doc Martins), topped off with a light neutrally colored leather or canvas jacket. He'll remove the jacket as the show progresses. Here's a scan...



And for Peggy, I made her Miss Yellow, as I want her warmth and charm to suggest light and freshness. She'll have a simple yellow t-shirt as her anchor, but she'll also have a neutral pair of shorts or cargo pants. And she'll have neutral tennis shoes and a light neutral shirt over it. Here too is a scan...



I have some details for the others, but I'm still developing them. I'd have loved to take the time to do some custom stuff (texture-wise), but it's not in the cards. I'll save the creative stuff for the masks for a little later.

- Sean