"The Complete Works..." - Finished Product!

A few months ago, I blogged about the Steampunk Shakespeare concept I was going to use for "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" at NSCDS.  I also posted this rendering of the costumes as a preview.  The show finished up in October, and I now have the final production photos to share with you!  I tried to stay as true to the concept as I could, but as with all shows that are shopped instead of built, the show evolved around the materials I found as I went along.  In the end, it was a bit more Emo and Goth than Steampunk, but I fell that starting with the Steampunk concept really helped me step out of the boundries of a normal modern-dress show and take risks with the design.  I'm very happy with the end product, and the kids LOVED their costumes... win-win!

If you'd like to skip the slideshow below, the photos are available to view full-screen on my Picasa album.

Emo, Steampunk, and Shakespeare - Oh my!

So my next show at North Shore Country Day School is coming up in October, and a few weeks ago I got a chance to sit down with the director and talk about her concept.  The show is "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)".  If you haven't heard of it or seen it, the basic idea is that a very small group of actors performs every play Shakespeare ever wrote - in under 2 hours.  Yeah.  Complete hysterical chaos.  The best way to summarize the director's concept is "Emo kids put on a show in the park".  It made me think of eccentric, thrown-together, pseudo-artsy costumes and set.  It also gives me a chance to incorporate one of my favorite fashion genres, Steampunk.

What's Steampunk, you ask?  Picture a modern world stuck in the Victorian era, where mechanical objects are still run on steam power instead of electricity.  You've probably seen movies that use the visual language of Steampunk but didn't realize it.  This website has a great list and definition, if you're curious to know more.  I just love the idea of using the historical fashion of Steampunk combined with the dark gothic look of Emo for Shakespeare.  I'm not the only one, apparently, because while I was researching I found some really awesome production photos from Curio Theatre's "Twelfth Night".  These are the kind of photos I love to find when I'm researching, because I can see what someone else has tried, what did or didn't work, and use that to build and enhance my own design concept.  Why re-invent the wheel when I can build a jet-pack instead?

So enough talking - here's some inspiring research to get this thing started!



Add a few neck ruffs, make the colors a little more dark and garish, this group's ready for some Shakespeare!



This girl could have gone to my high school.  Perfect goth-emo-steampunk mix.



The original Steampunk Twelfth Night.  (Anyone who knows my husband, look where they're from!!!)



I could fill this whole page with pictures and not scratch the surface of my research.  And did I mention that another inspiration for my design is the TV show "Carnivale"?

I really love dark, dirty, strange looks.  And since this show is just one week before Halloween, it'll be perfect to raise the weird factor a few notches.  Now that my mind is racing with ideas, it's time to go do renderings!