Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Lights, sets, costumes...
|
Though strapped for funds, there's a lot of care that goes into costume designing for plays staged in the city
|
TAILORED TO SUIT THE CHARACTERS Colourful costumes in "Nagamandala"
Lay on the colours too thick and you can swamp the characters. Make the textures too heavy and you can impede the actors' movements. Tone down the hues too much and you can make the characters seem like ghosts. Get the period details wrong and you can have a sartorial disaster on your hands.
A good costume designer for a play can enhance the text, unravel the deeper meanings and contribute to the power of suggestion.
Most costume designers in the city, turning over piles of material in dusty pavement shops, hot footing it to the neighbourhood tailor, making do with what's readily available, and struggling to make ends meet, often do it for the sheer love of the job. Costume designers seldom get their due. They are often taken for granted or damned by faint praise. Reviews tend to overlook their work.
Though continually strapped for funds, English and parallel theatre in the city, do manage to clothe their characters with conviction and very often with taste. Costume designers who range from fine arts students to computer scientists, use imagination and ingenuity, to turn curtain material and coarse Gaada into raiment fit for kings and commoners.
When actor Sarika took on the task of recreating the splendour of the court in "The Dreams of Tipu Sultan" she helped the audience take a quantum step backward, to the reign of the Tiger among princes. Nalini Sriram in Kalki's "Ponniyin Selvan" presented by Magic Lantern struck the balance between the cinema and the stage.
Recreating a period
Costume designers for the stage concur that a historical or period play is where their resources and budget are stretched the most.
Ranvir Shah, among the few men who have designed costumes for the Chennai theatre scene, is an antique textile collector. Ranvir, a perfectionist, has designed for "Dulari Bai", for Koothu -p-Pattarai's "England", and for "Bhinna Pravaha" by dancer Chandralekha. Peter Shaffer's "Royal Hunt of the Sun" directed by Usha Aroor about the Spaniards conquering the Incas needed much research by him. " Costume design in the theatre is generally good, there is good understanding of the text. Whether in Bollywood or the theatre there is a growing sense of design," observes Ranvir.
Nanda Devanesen has been designing costumes for plays since 1972 when "Julius Caesar" directed by husband Mithran Devanesen was staged in Jamaica. Nanda has been regularly doing the costumes for the Madras Players and other groups, nearly 60 plays in all. "I always read the text and attend the rehearsals. The costumes should suit the characters as well the sets," points out Nanda. Spectacular was the technicolour dreamcoat she created for Joseph in the musical staged in the 1980s.
"Similarly the pastel hued gowns I designed in `The Pirates of Penzance', drew an audible gasp from the audience." These are the moments when the designer feels it is worth every seam and stitch he or she has put in.
"The story sparks off the costume," says Lakshmi Srinath, who has a Fine Arts degree and exhibits her paintings regularly. "It was the dance-drama `Silappadikaram' that started me off on designing for the stage."
When Yamuna of the Madras Players asked her to do the costumes for "Hayavadana", Lakshmi conjured up the mood through earthy colours to fit the folk tale. Designing for "Rural Phantasy" recently was almost a song for Lakshmi as the play dealt with a milieu she is familiar with. The black and white pavadai dhavani for the heroine in the dream scene aesthetically evoked the black and white films of the 1940s. Lakshmi is now working on Cleveland Cultural Alliance's "Ekaantha Seetha" choreographed by the Dhananjayans.
Family affair
For many costume designers in the theatre, it is all within the family. Hyma Ramakrishna put together the evocative costumes for the Madras Players' "Nagamandala". "I do the costume for all Michael (Muthu's) plays," says Aarti, who designed the splendid period costumes recently for "Amadeus" by Boardwalkers. "The 18th Century costumes were recreated using pictures available on the Internet, mostly of plays staged. I saw the film too." This computer science student also designed the costumes for "The Bible" and "Hamlet" directed by her husband.
Neesha concurs with Aarti that the period costumes are the most difficult to make. Her first play was husband Freddy Koikaran of Stagefright's "Beethoven''. "We got a local tailor to stitch them. He couldn't speak a word of English but did a great job."
"The costumes always turn out pretty much as visualised," says Neesha, "We rope in the cast for the discussions. Freddy meticulously breaks it all down — the characters, their age, every little detail. We are now working on three short plays."
But in costume design, one has to be ever prepared for last minute hitches — the fit not being right or the director/wearer being unhappy with it on the eve of the show. There can be nightmarish experiences too such as a mink coat borrowed by a group from an USIS official's wife getting burnt by accident.
In West End and Broadway, the costume designer is on par with the choreographer. Here, the job is often undertaken by the wives of the directors. Hardly paid, they do it for the sheer pleasure of seeing their designs walking the boards.
KAUSALYA SANTHANAM
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
|
