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04-Mar / 0 COMMENTS
It has dawned on me lately that this year marks my 8th season of my, not so secret, experiment of “rehearsing and performing while wearing 18th century clothes” . It has been quite an exciting and sometimes frightening journey that led me to different challenges and realizations. From garment construction and its effects on movement , to dealing with my modern prejudices about said garments and their effects on their wearer. It also deepened my physical understanding of historical acting through the lens of the boundaries of the garments one wears, and the effects of wearing historical garments in a performance today on the performance itself, as well as the audience.
For every season for the past 8years I created 3 different looks for the type of character I would portray during 3 different programs. Trying to make that happen with no costume department behind me, limited budget, and limited storage space, led to the idea of creating and collecting an 18th century capsule of sorts including items that could be used interchangeably in different performances.
These days I am thinking and trying out different ways of writing about this special experiment. Even though I spoke to quite a few colleagues and members of the audience about my experience, I always wanted to put somethings down on paper. First in order to make some observations clearer for myself. Second, hopefully to put my observations into context. Of which one aspect being the stage performer I was while starting the experimt, and the stage performer that I am at the moment. Another aspect of context is, again, the practical, physical movement inside specific historical costumes.
If you have any questions or thoughts of how to start writing about this, please let me know through a comment bellow!
