Introduction

From the age of the Greeks and Romans to the present day, theatre has always been a form of entertainment.  For centuries, people have gathered together to enjoy the world of theatre.  There are many key elements in theatre such as the actors, set design, and even the script.  But those aside, there is one element that can really help the actors get into character and to help the audience get a better visual understanding of the characters on stage; costumes.  Costumes have been around for as long as theatres itself, its importance in theatre is far more than just looks.

Funtions of Costumes: Accent, Reflect, and Reveal

Costumes have quite an important role in the theatre and according to Dennis Spore’s Reality Through the Arts, costumes have three purposes: to accent, reflect, and to reveal (Spore 155).  When a costume accents a play, it shows the relationship between characters and it also lets the audience know which character/s are more important. 
Costumes reflect a certain time, for instance time of day, era, or location.  If a play takes place during the 1920’s, the actors should be wearing the appropriate clothing.  Jeans and a t-shirt would not be sufficed.  The clothing should show the audience what time period they are in, without having to tell them directly. 

1.1 Appropriate time period clothing http://s1.hubimg.com/u/635488_f520.jpg

Costumes need to also reveal a character in with it showcases the type of person they are.  If the character is wealthy, then he/she would be wearing expensive looking clothes.  Costumes also reveal the profession of characters; a doctor, as shown in photo 1.2, should be wearing a white coat, scrubs and/or a stethoscope. 

1.2 Doctor and nurse both clearly showcase their profession 

http://therapidian.org/sites/default/files/article_images/studio3twenty-3-34-xl.jpg

Types of Costumes: Traditional, Minimalism, and Avant Garde

Aside from Spore’s three functions, there are also different kinds of costumes.  According Theatre Professor Lou Fossum of California State Polytechnic University of Pomona, there are traditional, minimalism, and Avant Garde costumes.   
Traditional costumes refer to the appropriate time period, much like Spore’s idea of reflect.  The idea, again, is that the clothing worn by the actors are matching the time period being portrayed in the play. For instance, if a play is set in the 1920's, the actors and actresses should be wearing the appropriate clothing that people from the 1920s would have worn, as shown below. 

1920's appropriate time period costume http://smocblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_0589.jpg

 
Minimalism costumes a generally used in productions that would rather focus on the play itself and not the clothing.  Typically the actor would be wearing all black where the costume is not supposed to stand out.   


 

Minimalistic Theatre costumes: actors wearing all black http://pegasusnews.com/media/img/photos/2012/09/17/thumbs/the_7.JPG.728x520_q85.jpg

 And finally, Avant Garde is almost entirely opposite of minimalism.  The costumes are taken to extreme measures and stand out.  The costumes are innovative and are meant to pay respect to art. The photo below displays how extreme avant garde costumes can be.

Not Just a Costume

Spore and Fossum bring to light the different functions and types of costumes; these are more commonly associated within today’s theatre community and in the past century.  However, in the past era’s, costumes not only incorporated Spore’s three functions but they were the audiences only visual aside from the actors.  According to the website The History of Theatre: Costumes, “When plays began being performed, even through Shakespearean times, there were never props, backdrops, or other decorations to show the audience where the play was taking place (History of Theatre, paragraph 1).”  Since there were no forms of visual elements, the actors relied heavily on costumes to help the audience understand the play’s and to clearly express the time period, time of day, and etc. 

Greek and Roman's Use of Costumes

The Greeks and the Roman's use of costumes were very similar as you can see in the image below, the looks of the costumes look a like.  They both wore loose clothing that could change throughout the day and were very loose fitting.  The only difference in the two was the material they were made out of.  The Greek's cloth was made thicker and made of wool.  Another similarity between the two was that they both "had symbolism behind them that were automatically understood by the audience members (History of Theatre, pg 2)."  Certain colors would tell the audience whether the character was a male, female, young boy, wealthy, or poor.  According to The History of Theatre: Costumes, purple meant the character was wealthy. A striped rob meant that the character was a young boy.  A yellow robe signified a woman character and a red costume signified a poor character.  The length of a costume also had meaning to them as well.  A soldier would wear short cloaks and short tunic were for slaves.  If a character were a god, then they would wear a yellow tassel.  The Greeks and Romans  were creative and used costumes not just for looks, but to help the audience understand the character more.

http://theatrecostumes.webs.com/intro.png

Bibliography

"The History of Theatre: Costumes." The History of Theatre: Costumes. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2013.

Sporre, Dennis J.Reality Through the Arts.8thEdition

 

Fossum, Lou. "Theatre 423." Lecture.