Verheyen once designed for a Victorian play in which a female character disrobes. “I had her in the perfect Victorian corset. It was absolutely beautiful. She looked great and the scene seemed to be working, but the director kept saying ‘Mariann, something’s nagging at me about this…. I don’t think it’s sexy enough,’ and I was like, ‘You know what, I get that,’ and I changed it to a 1950s boned bustier,” she says. Though she admired the beauty of the historically accurate costume, it did not get the right message across. Verheyen frames the question as “What is more important: that it be period or that it be sexy the way we understand sexy?” She chose to stretch the historical veracity for the sake of the audience’s comprehension.

BOHÈMSTER

The role of the costume designer is not merely to update the setting of a play but to take it outside of time when necessary in order to serve the vision of the production. This freedom from the confines of accuracy can be liberating when other attributes of a production make adhering to historical facts difficult. For a production of “La Bohème” that Carlile designed, the problem was money. The opera is set in 1830s Paris, but the costume budget would not have allowed for full costumes from the period for each actor. “If we were to take all these lovely French people out of the 1830s and put them into contemporary America, what would they buy if they were shopping at thrift stores and flea markets and still trying to live this artistic ‘hipster life’? We could use contemporary clothing and still convey that timeless message of people who are really trying to live and die by their art,” Carlile says. She not only chose an anachronistic approach to make up for lack of funds, but to make the story more easily relatable for modern audiences. Her approach to the costume tapped into the universality of the characters’ lifestyle in “La Bohème.”

Cubbage is currently working on the designs for a production of “Peter Pan,” where she is also planning to depart from the costumes normally associated with the original story but for a very different reason. Cubbage wanted to find a way to portray the Native Americans without resorting racial stereotypes about Native American culture. She started by looking beyond their identity as Indians at what these characters signify in the story. “I think what they embody is this sense of wonder and coolness and badass-ness, so I decided to make them punks from the 70s,” Cubbage says. “They feel a little dangerous. They feel like the utmost in freedom and being cool that Peter looks up to, and they also feel like a tribal identity–if you were a punk, you’d dress a certain way.” Through this new identity the costumes will convey the culture and personalities of the characters without having to appeal to antiquated and potentially offensive cultural stereotypes.

For Carlile’s production of “The Kite Runner,” it was not a question of changing the cultural connotations of the costumes, but of universalizing the costumes. “Clearly we haven’t taken you to Afghanistan; we’re not sitting on an actual wall in Kabul. We can have that same journey of abstraction with the costumes,” Carlile says. “I started by dip dying and doing this ombre dye effect on all the costumes so that we would break their reality, even though all the silhouettes were the same and all the pieces were authentic and actually had been purchased from Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan.” The cultural distance between the environs of the production and the setting of the play is echoed in the design, similarly distancing the story from the specific circumstances of its setting to connect to a wider audience.

FIT IN

Costumes have to fit the actors’ idea of their own character in addition to the actors themselves. Costume designers must be careful to toe the line between over designing and leaving too much up to an actor. “Actors at some point want you to tell them what they are because you have some kind of an outside look at them, and then they tell you who they are because they’re already rehearsing the play,” says Belous. It is give and take, in which neither party should have too much power. Costume designers must be sure the clothing embodies the same characteristics that the actor feels their character possesses.

At the same time, Cubbage notes the risks in leaving too much up to the actors. “I’ve tried approaches where I’ve just asked the actors, ‘What do you think about what you’re wearing?” bring I some research images for what you’re wearing.’ Then you get a bunch of stuff and it makes your life so much harder,” she says. What is necessary for this balance is for a designer to make sure an actor trusts them and knows they are working for the same goal. The designs will enhance but not inhibit the actors’ ability to play their role and will not distract from their primary duty: to act. “I want them to feel good, and I want them to look good, and once an actor knows that that’s really what you want, then they trust you,” Cubbage says. “Because I really do embrace the character and think about the character from the inside out—I’m never just designing a pretty garment.”their role and will not distract from their primary duty: to act. “I want them to feel good, and I want them to look good, and once an actor knows that that’s really what you want, then they trust you,” Cubbage says. “Because I really do embrace the character and think about the character from the inside out—I’m never just designing a pretty garment.”

—Staff writer Rebecca J. Mazur can be reached at rmazur@college.harvard.edu.