Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! Costume style possibilities:

approaching design in unconventional ways

Period Realism (1871). As one of the United State’s best known musicals, there are specific audience expectations about this show, which this style would match. My goal would be to capture the costumes as authentically as possible. This would necessitate piles of primary sources to cut through the mush of time and too many high schoolers performing it in jeans, flannel shirts, and boots. Fabrics, colors, and silhouettes would all adhere strictly to historical authenticity, gender, class, and occupation.

commedia dell'arte. The stock characters of Oklahoma! are engrained in our consciousness so completely they can be played with substantially. Just as in commedia, Oklahoma! has innamorati (Curly & Laurie), perhaps like Katherina and Petruchio from Taming of the Shrew, the sweetly innocent Will Parker (Burratino), and Ali Hakim (Pantalone). Jud Fry would be played as Brighella or Pulcinella, Aunt Eller as La Ruffiana and Ado Annie would be a generic Columbina. The attempt here would be to offer a connection for the audience to these timeless archetypes in an already familiar show. Each character would be vaguely period realism (as described above), but would have one distinctive costume piece from Italian 1500s commedia characters and the traditional mask. For example, Pantalone/Ali Hakim would have a money bag on his belt, which works well with how afraid he is of Ado Annie costing him money and the ending irony of his paying not marry her. Brighella/Jud Fry would have a short dagger. At the beginning, Harlequin, somehow, would endow all characters with their pieces – I’m not sure how yet. Patches on Jud as the clown?

Modern Naturalism. Contemporary clothing for all characters fitting their gender, class, and occupation, reflecting the labor-intensive work needed. A gritty, burdened, and not always flattering look at life in small towns and in the cattle-fields and farms. These costumes would be more utilitarian than pretty, and any thoughts of romance would be more concerned with financial stability than “love.”

Jud Fry. Jud will be an unwilling monster, thrust into his final cruelty from a teasing culture that spurns the poor, the uneducated, the dirt-grubber. He’ll try to keep himself neat with what he has. In smokehouse private moments he is sewing patches on his clothes, only to have the boys publicly tear off a patch and tease him, to his great shame. Perhaps even a contrast to Curly who can have smudges or dirtiness about him, but his privilege allows him to without consequence. Think pre-ripped Abercrombie & Fitch jeans for $140 versus Jud’s genuinely ripped pants he got from his uncle.

Lookingglass Alice spectacle review

Eric Decker

Lookingglass Alice

Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago

In the first scene, the elements of spectacle used thoughout Lookingglass Alice are introduced to the audience: acrobatics, music variety, abrupt and dramatic lighting, creative use of space, and support from the technical crew. Director Catlin has a wide vocabulary of theatrical language to use, and while it can be overwhelming at moments, it also expands the ways actors can communicate with an audience beyond traditional stage shows.

What was from my seat a nostalgic, reminiscent beginning of an older man looking back on his relationship with young Alice, was radically different for those on the other side of the audience, who, presumably, saw a young girl playing and singing. The stage curtains dramatically parted, revealing the mirrored illusion, and served as a heads-up to the audience: all is not what you think – there are layers and depth to explore metaphorically and theatrically (a theme of the spectacle all through). Also, the expansive use of the space required constant technical presence, which in the first scene was introduced through the initial curtain speech (“mind your fingers and toes”), stage manager cues, and the crew clearing the first set and prepping the Sea of Tears. This early initiation allowed the audience to recognize how the show would be approached, and realigned our understanding of the conventions to be employed. With many other elements of spectacle, the first scene continued to establish the parameters (or lack thereof) of the playing area; these two examples (use of space and technical presence) illustrate the principles employed.

The effect of the spectacle of the first scene is to prepare the audience so we can immerse ourselves in the world Catlin has constructed using a broader language of communication. Once this is established, Alice struggling, then soaring through the ropes later in the play can elicit a strong physical and emotional response to her overcoming her obstacle in a way traditional texts resist.