The Tempest
A Class Project
Design Approach: The Tempest (1610) by William Shakespeare is a dramatic comedy about the redemptive act of love and restoration of relationships. Inspired by ancient magical lands and druids, the costumes will demonstrate love and relationship through color and texture of fabric. Island dwellers wear softer fabric with movement whereas the people from Naples wear more structured materials such as leather. These elements will mix as the relationships change throughout the show.
For Caliban, he is wearing a loin cloth and boots wrapped in red strips of fabric. This is to show his enslavement. He has red symbols on his face in Viking Runes it means thorn, a reactive force, defensive and conflict with encapsulates how he interacts with Prospero.
Prospero comes on stage in his magic cloak. He is in purple because he’s royalty. Majestic and magical, he has Celtic ruins/symbols around his belt because he deals in magic and he wants to have symbols of health, safety, happiness around his center.
For Ariel, I was inspired for the most part by ballet and how the fabric moves and flows. He as a spirit of the air that works so hard but looks effortless, weightless.
For Miranda, I wanted her first look before she meets Ferdinand/Francesca to be light fabric in a variation of her father’s color. It flows like Ariel’s but has a protection belt like her father.
We made Ferdinand a female. With Francesca, I wanted her in leather and heavy weight fabric to ground her to earth more firmly than the island’s inhabitants because she is from Naples.
For my second Miranda look, after they meet each other and fall in love, Miranda starts wearing white leather to symbolize her transition to her new sense of self. She still loves and cares for her father but it is not her primary focus anymore.