The Tempest Costumes from the RSC

On Monday Liz, Lucy, Jacoba and Sarah went to the RSC costume store in Stratford for a first look and ideas session for The Tempest costumes.

The RSC costume store is a wear house with over 3 floors packed full of exquisitely made costumes from past RSC productions. 

On the ground floor you have Tudor, Elizabethan, Jacobean and old English consumes, on the first floor you have Regency to Victorian and Fantasy (where we spent most of the day) and on the top floor shoes, boots, military, broken down costumes, more modern items and fat suits! 
It is amazing!





We had lots of ideas for The Tempest costumes and got stuck straight in, up and down the familiar aisles spotting costumes we have used in other Stage2 shows. It brings back such fond memories. 

We headed straight for our villains costumes and saw some stunning black dresses and suits for Sebastian and Antonia!

We stayed with the court group and looked at cloaks for Alonso. We looked for opulence and rich tones keeping them very separate from the pale colours in the Islanders costumes.








We also came across a stunning cloak with beautiful plants and leaves embroidered on it, that may make an appearance in 
Act 5...








We then had a great time looking for Prospero and Miranda costumes and we found some great combinations of things, it will be hard to finally choose when we go back for the final choices. (We did have a moment of thinking 'why aren't there more dresses for Prospero?!' then remembered that making her female is yet another adaptation that Stage2 has made!) 

We have decided to go with light fabrics: silks, gossamers, cotton and muslin. We also like the idea of layering disytressed fabrics and washed out colours. 

By the time the play begins Miranda and Prospero have been on the Island for at least 10 years so the sun and sea will have bleached their clothes and they would be using underclothes and other things from around the Island to create their clothes.

 It is very important that for any on stage costumes you think about the way the fabric catches the light and how washed out or vivid you want the fabrics to be. 

It is also so important to link the 

groups of characters together through costumes. 

When we are doing Shakespeare plays at Stage2 we like to show status, morality and relationships through costume.

 We spoke a lot about the groups of characters that are related and on stage together such as Ferdinand who although he needs to look like part of the Kings Family he also spends most of his scenes with Miranda and they need to match and connect through costume.

We then looked for costumes for our Goddesses,   Jesters and Harpy which was so great thinking about how beautiful, funny and scary we can make these characters. 

There are also some fun scenes that require some interesting costumes and the RSC have lots of them too...














We really enjoyed our day and can wait for you to see all the costumes we have chosen in The Tempest by Stage2 Youth Theatre
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