Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1994 - 12

far more about choosing proper costumes than even they realize,
and much, much more than they are given credit for. I had tried
for some time to cater to actor's costume requests, but I had
never set out to do a whole show where the actors could actually
determine much of the design for their roles.
To take care of the "aerobic" movement problem, I concluded that it would be possible to embellish unitards with paint and
sleeve puffs to create a kind of ballet version of Renaissance
dress to allow for "aerobic" action, but this still didn't allow cos-

tumes to change from role to
role. To do this, I still needed
some other way to change the
basic garment.
I then found an unusual garment at a craft fair called a
Came/eon. The Cameleon is a
strange invention that makes up
into ten different things from a
purse to a cape to a pair of
pants. The Came/eon is made
from a large hexagon of fabric,
with a gathered tube in the center. The tube has a zipper and
three drawstring casings, and
the hem is also bordered with a
drawstring. I couldn't use the
Came/eon directly, since all of
its 10 garments look more hippie-ish than Renaissance.
However, seeing the Came/eon
inspired me to try to invent a
simple garment that could convert into multiple variations.

THE OMNIGARMENT
Working from the basis of a masquerade mask, I developed a
series of fabric squares attached to the mask on elastic bands that
I called the Omnigarment: a single article of clothing that can be
arranged by the actor into three different types of skirts, two
types of breeches, seven types of tunics, five types of capes, and
three types of wimple as well as a few other things. In addition,
the garment could be worn as a mask for the masked ball scene
of Shakespeare's play. The pattern, while radically different from
rhe Came/eon, was simple to sew and make, and was capable of
more period looking variations than the other garment.
I then took a single black-and-white outline design of a unitard with "period" sleeves attached, and a flat design of the
omnigarment and photocopied 60 of them, a pair for each performer. I then embellished each pair with rhe "rainbow sherbet"
colors the director had requested as suitable for a comedy. On
the day the play was cast, I presented
the designs to the actors by laying them
out on the floor and asking that they
chose one with a color scheme for
themselves. Interestingly, the doublecast actors, (the two Benedicts, Heros,
Beatrices, and C1audios,) picked nearly
identical color schemes as each other,
despire not consulting their counterparts. All of the actors miraculously
chose the colors I would have chosen
for them myself, so, while giving the
performers a strong sense of control, I
lost nOJhing in my sense of the quality
of the design. (As I said, most actors'
costume sense is badly underrated.)
After constructing the Omnigarments, I then made a home video
demonstrating 25 ways ro wear the
garment. I showed the video to rhe
acrors prior to first dress, and rhen
handed the garments over to the actors.
Within ten minutes, they discovered

5 P R I N G

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1994