Costumes are as important as the lines rehearsed
Some arts get you name recognition. Think about Kate Winslet gracing the screen on Titanic. But where would they be without their costumes? You can’t imagine the character Rose without those sumptuous period dresses. Costumes are always on display, yet the art of costuming is rarely acknowledged.
Garry Lee Posey, theater artist, knows about costumes from every angle, having both collaborated with costumers in his long career as a director and also having been a costumer himself. The Pulse asked Posey about costume artists and their craft.
The Pulse: Most readers will have seen your name associated with theater work…can you tell me specifically about your costuming work?
Garry Lee Posey: When I went to undergrad, I had one goal/dream—to direct. It didn’t take very long for me to realize that there was a whole lot of learning that had to been done before being entrusted with that responsibility. As an avid workaholic, I needed to find something in the craft that I could immerse myself in while working towards my primary goal.
One of my professors, James “Parkie” Parker, was a rather intimidating older man with a squeaky voice. After my first semester, I gathered enough courage to ask him if I could volunteer in the costume shop.
My first lesson was sewing lines he had drawn on a piece of paper, then how to thread a bobbin, then thread the machine, then sewing some pieces of fabric together. Within an afternoon, he had me comfortable on a sewing machine.
[After working in New York and Washington, DC] I returned to Chattanooga in 2000 to head up the Theatre Center’s Youth Theatre Program. For my tenure at the CTC, I designed costumes and sets for both the circle theatre series and the youth theatre shows.
When I started the ETC [Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga], it was necessary to put that hat back on and ever since I continue to wear it proudly. About five years ago, I started making costumes for drag queens and have clients all over Chattanooga and as far as Maryland and South Carolina.
The Pulse: Costuming is an art form people rarely think about. What goes into being a good costumer?
Posey: There’s an interesting myth in the theater community where all that is really needed are actors and an audience. And while that is true at its most basic definition, we know that an audience (by their nature) will take cues from the actor’s behavior, environment, body language and the general interaction with the world around them.
Even back to the cavemen warriors wearing the pelt of the animal that they slew while their community enjoyed the bounty and sat around a fire, that ritual storytelling used costume to help convey the story.
A good costumer needs to be subtle and able to communicate through texture, color, silhouette, and movement. They should also be able to identify and present different periods of fashion in such a way as to not distract from someone’s experience, but also be able to use modern anachronisms to help tell a story.
Finally, there is a psychological understanding of how certain things affect people…the psychology of color, for instance, or even shapes.
The Pulse: How do you take into account the actor…their size and shape, but also how they look, move, etc.?
Posey: The actor is the canvas for the costume designer. Each canvas is primed differently, each canvas reacts differently to different media, etc. That’s the first thought; the second thought has to do with their comfort level. In order for an actor to do their job onstage, there has to be a level of comfort.
Costuming typically has an effect on someone because 90 percent of the time they are wearing things that they would never wear in their day to day lives. From there, you have to consider what the director is going for, what the actor is going for and what you are going for in wanting to communicate to the audience.
Is this character guarded or free, tightly wound or loose, angry or loving, sad or confused, etc....then use those ideas to communicate the use of color or line, or silhouette and texture.
The Pulse: What costumers working in Chattanooga now are you most excited about? Are there recent or upcoming shows where you are/were especially interested in the costuming?
Posey: I think Scott Dunlap at the CTC is one of the most creative costumers I have ever seen; his creative talent plus his technical skill is gem in the Chattanooga area.
Brenda Schwab, however, is the most prolific and as a director I love working with her. She really hones in on the character and plus has a genius mind and creative eye.