Costume Design for Back to Methuselah, Parts Three and Four the Thing Happens and the Elderly Gentleman

Home , Back to Methuselah, The Apple Cart

Costume Design for Back to Methuselah, Parts Three and Four The Thing Happens and The Elderly Gentleman

By Debra Emily Kennedy

B. S. in Home Economics Education and B. S. in Clothing and Textiles, November 1978, North Dakota State University

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Fine Arts

January 31, 2016

Thesis directed by

Sigridur Johannesdottir Assistant Professor of Theatre

Dedication

The author wishes to dedicate this project to her very supportive family and especially to her dad, who made her dream of going to college the first time, possible.

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Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge everyone encountered on the path to this achievement. At The George Washington University’s Department of Theatre and Dance, thank you to Sigrid, Carl, Tanya, Izzy, Barbara, Jason, John and Ann. At The Washington

Stage Guild, thank you to Bill, Ann, again, Arthur and the entire cast and company. To my fellow M. F. A. seekers, Basmah, Kirk, Molly, Reema, Sara, Shirong and Sydney. And finally, thank you to my costume shop mates, Andre, Brittney, Elizabeth, Emily, Josh,

Moira, Polly, Wendy and Zoe. Each and every one of you had a hand in this. Thank You!

Abstract of Thesis Costume Design for Back to Methuselah, Parts Three and Four The Thing Happens and The Elderly Gentleman

This thesis serves as a record for the process of designing and delivering costumes for the production of Back to Methuselah, produced by the Washington Stage Guild at the

Undercroft Theatre of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900

Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., opening on February 19 and closing on

March 13, 2015. It was directed by Bill Largess, costume designs were done by Debbie

Kennedy, set design was by Shirong Gu, lighting designer was Marianne Meadows, sound design was by Frank DiSalvo, Jr. and stage manager was Arthur Nordlie. This document traces the seven steps of the design process, includes supporting research, describes challenges and opportunities and showcases final production photographs.

Table of Contents

Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………………….……...... iii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………………………...iv Abstract of Thesis…………………….………………………………………………………………………………v Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………………………………vi List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………………………….vii List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………………………………….xi Glossary of Terms………………………………………………………………………………………………….xii Chapter 1: Commitment……………….…………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 2: Analysis…………………………….……………………………………………………………………6 Chapter 3: Research…………………………….…………………………………………………………………11 Chapter 4: Incubation…………………………………………………………………………………………….15 Chapter 5: Selection……………………………………………………………………………………………….18 Chapter 6: Implementation…………………….………………………………………………………………30 Chapter 7: Evaluation…………………………………………………………………………………………….45 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………50 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………..…………………………53

List of Figures

Research Images

Figure 1. Back to Methuselah, produced in New York, 1922...... …...53

Figure 2. Back to Methuselah, produced in New York, 1922………………..……..……………….53

Figure 3. Back to Methuselah, produced in New York, 1922……………………..…….………….53

Figure 4. Back to Methuselah, produced in Birmingham, 1923………………..………….………54

Figure 5. Back to Methuselah, produced in Birmingham, 1923………………….………………..54

Figure 6. Back to Methuselah, produced in Birmingham, 1923…………..……………………….54

Figure 7. Back to Methuselah, produced in Birmingham, 1923………….………………………..55

Figure 8. Research image for costume designer Paul Shelving, James Carew as Mr. Vanhattan, the American Ambassador in The Apple Cart at Queen’s Theatre, 1929……………………………………………………………………………………..….55

Figure 9. Research image for costume designer Paul Shelving, Cedric Hardwicke as Magnus in The Apple Cart at Queen’s Theatre, 1929…...... ……55

Figure 10. Research image for Burge-Lubin……………………….……………………………………..56

Figure 11. Research image for Burge-Lubin………………….……………………………….…………..56

Figure 12. Research image for Barnabas……………………………………………………….…………..57

Figure 13. Research image for Barnabas…………………………………………………………………..57

Figure 14. Research image for The Minister of Health, scene one……………………………….58

Figure 15. Research image for Confucius………………………………………………………………….58

Figure 16. Research image for Mrs. Lutestring………………………………………………………….59

Figure 17. Research image for The Minister of Health, scene two……………………………….59

Figure 18. Research image for The Archbishop…………………………………………………………60

Figure 19. Research image for The Archbishop…………………………………………………………60

Figure 20. Research image for The Archbishop………………………………………………………..60

Figure 21. Research image for The Elderly Gentleman………………………………………………61

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Figure 22. Research image for The Elderly Gentleman……………………..………………………..61

Figure 23. Research image for Napoleon………………………………………….………………………62

Figure 24. Research image for The Envoy…………………………………………………………………62

Figure 25. Research image for The Envoy…………………………………………………………………62

Figure 26. Research image for The Envoy’s Wife……………………………………………………….63

Figure 27. Research image for The Envoy’s Wife………………………………………………………..63

Figure 28. Research image for The Envoy’s Wife……………………………………………….……..63

Figure 29. Research image for The Envoy’s Son…………………………………………………………64

Figure 30. Research image for The Envoy’s Son…………………………………………………...... 64

Figure 31. Research image for The Envoy’s Son…………………………………………………………65

Figure 32. Research image for Fusima, Zozim and Zoo……………………………………………….65

Figure 33. Research image for Fusima, Zozim and Zoo………………………………………………66

Figure 34. Research image for Fusima, Zozim and Zoo……………………………………………...66

Figure 35. Research image for The Oracle…………………………………………………………………67

Figure 36. Research image for The Oracle…………………………………………………………………67

Figure 37. Research image for The Oracle…………………………………………………………………68

Sketches

Figure 38. Sketch of Burge-Lubin…………………………………………………………………………….69

Figure 39. Sketch of The Minister of Health, scene one………………………………………………70

Figure 40. Sketch of Barnabas…………………………………………………………………………………71

Figure 41. Sketch of Confucius…………………………………………………………………………………72

Figure 42. Sketch of The Archbishop………………………………………………………………………..73

Figure 43. Sketch of Mrs. Lutestring………………………………………………………………………..74

Figure 44. Sketch of The Minister of Health, scene two……………………………………………….75

Figure 45. Sketch of The Elderly Gentleman……………………………………………………………..76

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Figure 46. Sketch of Napoleon………………………………………………………………………………...77

Figure 47. Sketch of The Envoy. ………………………………………………………………………………78

Figure 48. Sketch of The Envoy’s Wife………………………………………………………………………79

Figure 49. Sketch of The Envoy’s Son……………………………………………………………………….80

Figure 50. Sketch of Fusima……………………………………………………………………………………81

Figure 51. Sketch of Zozim………………………………………………………………………………………82

Figure 52. Sketch of Zoo…………………………………………………………………………………………83

Production Images

Figure 53. Conrad Feininger as Burge-Lubin and Laura Giannarelli as The Minister of Health, The Thing Happens, scene one…………………………...... ……….84

Figure 54. The Cast of The Thing Happens……………………………………………………………….84

Figure 55. Jacob Yeh as Confucius in The Thing Happens…………………………………………..85 Figure 56. Michael Avolio as Barnabas in The Thing Happens…………………………………….86

Figure 57. Lynn Steinmetz as The Domestic Minister and Brit Herring as The Archbishop in The Thing Happens…………………………………………...... …………87

Figure 58. Conrad Feininger as Burge-Lubin and Laura Giannarelli as The Minister of Health in The Thing Happens, scene two……………………...... ……….88

Figure 59. Vinnie Clark as the Elderly Gentleman and Stephanie Schmalzle as Zoo in The Elderly Gentleman…...... 89

Figure 60. Vinnie Clark as the Elderly Gentleman, Jacob Yeh as Zozim and Laura Giannarelli as Fusima in The Elderly Gentleman……………...... …………………90

Figure 61. Stephanie Schmalzle as Zoo wearing the nurse’s cap, front and back views, showing the detail in The Elderly Gentleman……………………...... …………90

Figure 62. Stephanie Schmalzle as Zoo wearing the nurse’s cap, front and back views, showing the detail in The Elderly Gentleman…………………………...... ……90

Figure 63. Conrad Feininger as Napoleon and Laura Giannarelli as the Oracle in The Elderly Gentleman…………………………………………...... ………………..91

Figure 64. Michael Avolio as the Envoy’s Son, Brit Herring as the Envoy, Lynn Steinmetz as the Envoy’s Wife and The Elderly Gentleman, in The Elderly Gentleman………………………………………………………………………………….………92

Figure 65. Brit Herring as the Envoy, Jacob Yeh in the Druid costume he Temple scene and the Elderly Gentleman, in The Elderly Gentleman……………..……….93

Figure 66. Stephanie Schmalzle as Zoo in costume for the Temple Scene in The Elderly Gentleman……………………………...... ………………………………94

Figure 67. Laura Giannarelli as the Serpent and Vinnie Clark as the Elderly Gentleman in The Elderly Gentleman…………………………………...... …………………….95

List of Tables

Table 1: Costume Sources for The Thing Happens, Part Three………………………….………..40

Table 2: Costume Sources for The Elderly Gentleman, Part Four………………………………. 41

Table 3: Costume Plot for The Thing Happens, Part Three…………………………………………42

Table 4: Costume Plot for The Elderly Gentleman, Part Four……………………………………..43

Table 5: Expense Record for Back to Methuselah, Parts Three and Four……………………..44

Glossary of Terms

Coeval: of the same or equal age, antiquity, or duration Discomfit: archaic, to defeat in battle, to put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment, disconcert Egotistical: given to talking about oneself, vain, boastful and opinionated, indifferent to the well-being of others, selfish Frivolous: lack of seriousness or sense, self-indulgently carefree, unconcerned about or lacking any serious purpose, of little or no weight, worth or importance Frolic: merry play, gaiety, fun, playful action or prank Frumpish: dowdy, drab Garish: crudely or tastelessly colorful, showy and elaborate as clothes or decoration Kitschy: something of tawdry design, appearance or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste Lackluster: lacking in sheen, brilliance, or vitality, dull, mediocre Licentious: unrestrained by law or general morality, lawless, immoral, going beyond customary or proper bounds or limits, disregarding rules Mortify: obsolete, to destroy the strength or vitality by abstinence, self-inflicted pain or discomfort, to subject to severe and vexing embarrassment Outmoded: not being in style, no longer acceptable, current, or usable Preposterous: completely contrary to nature, reason or common sense, absurd, senseless, utterly foolish Serviceable: fit for use, of adequate quality Trite: lacking freshness or effectiveness because of constant use or excessive repetition Utilitarianism: a doctrine that the useful is good and that the determining consideration of right conduct should be the usefulness of its consequences; specifically, a theory that the aim of action should be the largest possible balance of pleasure over pain or the greatest happiness of the greatest number Utopian: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a utopia; having impossibly ideal conditions, especially of social organization, proposing or advocating impractically ideal social and political schemes, visionary

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Chapter 1. Commitment In 1945, George Bernard Shaw wrote a postscript for the Oxford University Press publication of his work where he said “Back to Methuselah is a World Classic or it is nothing.”1

The best and world class choice for this thesis was Back to Methuselah: The Thing

Happens and The Elderly Gentleman, Parts Three and Four, by George Bernard Shaw produced at the Washington Stage Guild. There were many options available and the process of exploring the pros and cons of each was a valuable exercise.

The contenders:

The 2014-2015 George Washington University Main Stage season opened with

Vanishing Point by Jeri Kroll, followed by Urinetown, the Musical by composer Mark

Hollmann and playwright Greg Kotis in the fall. The spring productions were The

Trestle at Pope Lick Creek by Vuk Mitrovic and Rahel Grunder and Dog Sees God, by

Bert V. Royal.

While these Main Stage shows may be popular on a college campus among both faculty and students, and feed a need to address social issues, the primary focus of designing the costumes for these shows would be to pull costumes from storage and alter them. There may be art in that but, for me, creating something from new and whole cloth would be a collection of work to truly be proud of.

As an assistant for Emma by Jane Austen and Twelfth Night by Shakespeare earlier in my education, I developed a personal longing to do a classic production with wonderful period costumes for my thesis.

1 Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, Theatrical Companion to Shaw A Pictorial Record of the First Performances of the Plays of George Bernard Shaw (London: Rockliff Publishing Corporation, 1954), 190.

As it was, the Main Stage production costume design assignments went to classmates who were more senior. Motivation to do a thesis project a semester earlier than usual made for a crowded field so other options were sought out.

The George Washington University Music Department announced the spring opera

SPEED DATING TONIGHT!, a one act comic opera created by composer Michael Ching and producer Dean Anthony, after my commitment to Back to Methuselah. It portrays an imaginary speed dating night at a bar where the student actors/singers would wear their own clothes.

The idea of a combined Museum Design Certificate/Master of Fine Arts thesis project did not materialize as the Museum Certificate program does not require a thesis project.

Nothing in the upcoming seasons at Metro Stage or Ambassador Theatre looked more interesting or classic than Back to Methuselah at Washington Stage Guild.

The winner:

George Bernard Shaw’s masterpiece, Back to Methuselah, written when he was 64 years old, is among the first science fiction works to be written for the stage.

The Washington Stage Guild is known to produce eloquent plays of ideas and arguments, passion and wit. Their catch phrase is “smart theatre for a smart town” and the faithful

Stage Guild audiences come expecting to face issues that push emotional edges and explore changing human relationships.2

By choosing to perform George Bernard Shaw’s “meta-biological Pentateuch,” the

Washington Stage Guild made a brave decision to go where few have gone before. Only

2 Washington Stage Guild, accessed January 9, 2015, http://stageguild.org.

2 four times has the complete five parts of Back to Methuselah been performed since it was premiered by the New York Theatre Guild in 1922.

The complete, five part play takes ten hours to perform. Wisely, for everyone involved, the Washington Stage Guild chose to spread it over three years. The first two parts, In the Beginning and The Gospel of the Family Barnabas were presented in 2013-2014 season. The final part, As Far as Thought Can Reach, will be produced in 2016, in honor of the Washington Stage Guild’s 30th anniversary.

As costume designer for Elling, based on a book by Ingvar Ambjørnsen, during their

2013-2014 season, I knew it would be pleasant to work at The Washington Stage Guild again. Actor’s Equity Association members treat student designers with respect and expect professional results.

It would also be an honor to work with Bill Largess, the Washington Stage Guild’s

Artistic Director since 2008. A graduate of Catholic University, he has been an actor and director in the Washington, D. C. theatre community for over thirty years.3 His vast experience from working in nearly every theatre in the D. C. area would add to my scholastic experience in completing this thesis.

The cast included both experienced and new actors, with a wide range of abilities and perspectives. Vinnie Clark, played the main role in The Elderly Gentleman, made his professional debut in 1975 at the Olney Theatre and is a member of the Washington

Stage Guild Acting Company.4 Conrad Feininger, as both Burge-Lubin and Napoleon,

3 The George Washington University, Department of Theatre and Dance, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University, accessed October 12, 2015, https://theatredance.columbian.gwu.edu/bill-largess.

4 Providence College, Theatre, Dance and Film, accessed October 12, 2015, http://www.providence.edu/theatre/theatre/Pages/alumni.aspx.

3 comes from Connecticut and appears to really live the roles he plays. Laura Giannarelli, as the Minister of Health, Fusima and the Oracle, with her amazing voice, is also a narrator for the Library of Congress. Michael Avolio can be any age he wants to be, from a ten year old Envoy’s son to Barnabas, the mature accountant trying to keep the budget under control. Jacob Yeh is father to a couple of small children whose career has been migrating successfully into acting. As Confucius, his Asian appearance was convenient and as Zozim, he provided balance to the long living female nurses. Lynn Steinmetz is a

Juilliard graduate, a founding member of the Washington Stage Guild and has designed costumes for many shows. She played Mrs. Lutestring and the Envoy’s wife. Brit Herring received his MFA from The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical

Acting at The George Washington University in 2009 and now splits his time between

New York City and Washington, D. C.5 He was cast as the Archbishop and as the Envoy.

Stephanie Schmalzle is a trained singer and actress with an authentic British accent who made for a suitable Zoo.6 They each brought something special to the production and their input added to the educational element for me.

The plot line of Back to Methuselah, The Thing Happens is quite intriguing. In the year

2170 A. D., the British Empire is based in Baghdad. Some people are beginning to live longer than the expected age of eighty. To avoid being found out as they continue to draw social benefits, they fake their own death and start a new life as a new person. With the new invention of moving pictures that record history, the Archbishop is found out.

5 Brit Herring, accessed October 13, 2015, http://britherring.com/about.

6 Stephanie Schmalzle, accessed October 13, 2015, http://www.stephanieschmalzle.com/#!resume/c1d94.

The Domestic Minister then admits that she, too, is a long-liver. Arm in arm, they exit the stage.

The fourth play of Back to Methuselah, The Elderly Gentlemen takes place in Ireland in the year 3000 A.D. Long-livers have all migrated to the island and developed a philosophy that short- livers are much too immature to handle the affairs of the world and thus should be exterminated. The British Envoy and his family from Baghdad, travel to Ireland to visit the Oracle, where their encounters with the long-livers leave them confused and threatened. The Elderly Gentleman, longing for his homeland, Ireland, begs to stay and the play ends profoundly.

Back to Methuselah fulfilled my desire to create costumes from whole cloth and being futuristic, allowed my imagination to run wild. Utilizing my past experiences, all resources available to me and with collaboration from a great cast and crew at the

Washington Stage Guild, designing a classic play done at a professional theatre, provided my thesis with more gravitas.

Chapter 2. Analysis At a glance, George Bernard Shaw is the well-known Irish playwright of more than 60 plays and co-founder of the London School of Economics. A closer look at his life and influences may explain how those accomplishments came to be.

For two centuries prior to George Bernard Shaw’s birth, the family was part of the gentry, living pleasantly on small country estates, and were part of the upper middle class. Bernard Shaw liked to say “I am a typical Irishman; my family came from

Hampshire, England; my earliest Irish ancestor, who came to Ireland in 1689, was of

Scottish descent.”7

George Bernard Shaw, called Sonny, was born on July 26, 1856 on Dublin’s south side,

Ireland and died on November 2, 1950 at the age of 94 in Ayot St Lawrence,

Hertfordshire, England from injuries suffered after falling from a ladder, attempting to prune a tree branch.

At an early age, he had experiences that would form his life views.

With his mother being a professional singer and his father a gentleman grain merchant,

Sonny and his two sisters were cared for by nurses in the basement kitchen of their home.

An Irish “thorough nurse” (maid of all work) often took him with her to visit her friends in the slums or into public houses instead of pleasant strolls through St. Stephen’s Green or along the canals. “With the exception of Nurse Williams, a good and honest woman,”

7 Archibald Henderson, George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1956), 4.

6 records Shaw, “the servants were utterly unfit to be trusted with the charge of three cats, much less three children.”8

From an early age he respected and admired his father but the discovery that his father was an alcoholic changed Sonny forever. One day while walking along a canal, his father pretended and nearly succeeded in throwing him into the water. To learn that his father was a hypocrite and a dipsomaniac left him with no beliefs in anyone or anything. The family dealt with the problem with Irish lucidity and an antiseptic sense of humor. “If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”9

The Shaws were Episcopal Church of Ireland people. They were accepting of other protestant sects but not of Roman Catholic institutions. The first school Sonny attended was the Wesleyan Connexional School in 1867. He stayed there just over one year and after a short interlude at another private school, he was enrolled at the Central Model

Boys School on Marlborough Street in Dublin. Here, Shaw describes it as undenominational and classless in theory but, in fact, was Roman Catholic. He discovered that his classmates were lower middle class Catholic children, sons of shopkeepers and tradesmen. His father was aware but hoped that the superior character of the school would outweigh the social discrimination that a Protestant boy would experience. For eighty years, he kept his attendance at that school a secret, believing he was branded as a “downstart.” To come from a society of landed gentry that strove to maintain a select social circle and then find himself excluded from it because of attendance at school for poor boys of inferior social rank, made a deep impression on his life.

8 Ibid. 11-12.

9 Archibald Henderson, George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century, 11-12.

His final formal education was at the Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day

School, founded by the Incorporated Society for Promoting Protestant Schools in

Ireland. Here he was to be prepared for a career in business.

Described as independent, willful and capricious, Shaw was a self-made man in regards to education. He left school to go to work in 1871.10

Beginning as estate office clerk, he studied and wrote, but did not become self-sufficient as a critic of the arts until 1885.

Having witnessed and experienced numerous social problems as a youth, Shaw was naturally positioned and talented to write about what he saw and felt passionate about.

As an early member of the Fabian Society, founded in 1884, Shaw agreed with the

Society’s aim to become politically involved in order to advance socialist ideas and transform society, but to do it patiently and gradually.

The London School of Economics and Political Science was founded in 1895 by members of the Fabian Society, including George Bernard Shaw. It remains a prestigious university and covers a wide range of social sciences as well as other disciplines.

Fellow Fabian, Charlotte Payne-Townshend and George Bernard Shaw were married in

1898 and lived in the house called Shaw’s Corner.

In 1903, Shaw first expresses his ideas about creative evolution and life force as a religion in Man and Superman where he combines comedy and philosophy. It will take almost twenty years before he finishes Back to Methuselah, which is often referred to as his bible for creative evolution. Life force and creative evolution were ideas and terms used by the French philosopher, Henri-Louis Bergson (October 18, 1859 – January 4,

10 Ibid. 18-22.

1941) and adopted by Shaw.11 Bergson’s third principal work Creative Evolution was published in 1907.12 No doubt Shaw sought to take Bergson’s scholarly, philosophical and controversial ideas and make them palatable for the common people. Shaw brought these ideas to the theatre stage and mixed them with humor to retain audiences. In writing the whole Back to Methuselah, he carried on the tradition of legend, mingled with religion and storytelling.13 14

As to the greater world that Shaw inhabited, Great Britain had reached its peak and now was in a slow decline. The growth of income per capita had been waning for some years.

The devastation experienced as a result of World War I, 1914-1918, diminished the country’s vitality even more.15 It was with these events in mind that Shaw set out to make people think about new possibilities for human life, and to make them laugh a little.

So who was Methuselah? He is the man who lived to the oldest age as recorded in the

Bible. In Genesis 5:27, we read “And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.”16 It also tells us that Noah was his grandson and tradition passes on that Methuselah died just seven days before Noah boarded the Ark and the flood began.

11 Caldwell Titcomb, The Harvard Crimson, August 1, 1957, accessed October 25, 2015, http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1957/8/1/back-to-methuselah-pwhat-if- the/. 12 Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution (New York : Henry Holt and Company, 1911).

13 Ivor Brown, Shaw in His Time (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, LTD, 1965). 14 A. M. Gibbs, A Bernard Shaw Chronology (New York: Palgrave , 2001). 15 Charles P. Kindleberger, World Economic Primacy: 1500-1990 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

16 The King James Bible On Line. 2015, accessed July 11, 2015, http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Methuselah/.

Aubrey de Grey coined the word “methuselarity” which means that all medical reasons for human death would be eliminated and death could only occur by accident or homicide.17

George Bernard Shaw died at the age of 94 from an accident. Hmmmm?

Many forces came together in the creating of Back to Methuselah. Shaw’s personal talents and experiences were molded by world events and thought movements over the course of many years. At the age of 64, this play, his “metabiological Pentateuch” is a reflection of his creative and intellectual mind at that time in his life.

17 Wikipedia, 2015, accessed 2015, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey.

Chapter 3. Research How does one research the years 2170 A. D. and 3000 A. D.? As Zoo says in The Elderly

Gentleman “there is no such thing as the future until it is the present.”18 This research both reflects on previous productions and looks at the characters’ personality traits in the effort to style costumes for The Washington Stage Guild’s production.

Sir Lewis Casson wrote in G. B. S. at Rehearsal, “I never knew Shaw to take any serious practical interest in anything beyond the casting and the acting. All the rest, including scenery, costumes, lighting and grouping, was of very minor importance, and personally, as a director, I sympathize with him.”19

Writing, casting, and acting were Shaw’s priorities. Sets and costumes were handed off to others. Two of the first Shaw costume and set designers were Lee Simonson (1888-1967) in New York and Paul Shelving (1888-1968) in Birmingham.

Lee Simonson designed the set and costumes for the Back to Methuselah premier in New

York City in 1922.

In Settings and Costumes of the Modern Stage, Lee Simonson writes about the drab coloring of American life and theatre in the late nineteenth century and how the second generation of American set designers in the early twentieth century imagined a decorator’s holiday, filled with birds, flowers and pristine colors of life. These colorful sets were short-lived as new experimental theatres were less interested in spectacle and more focused on ideas. The designers, along with the theatre companies shared the

18 George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah Washington Stage Guild Script, ed. Bill Largess. 2015.

19 Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, Theatrical Companion to Shaw A Pictorial Record of the First Performances of the Plays of George Bernard Shaw, 16.

11 conviction that the theatre was a forum where the design of living could be changed or reinterpreted.20

It is this view that Simonson shares with Shaw as they embark on producing Back to

Methuselah and Shaw’s other plays beginning in 1922 for New York audiences. Some black and white images survive and are shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3 on page 53.21 While the images are of poor quality, one does not see vivacious, over the top costumes. Rather, costumes that will not distract the audience from listening to Shaw’s ideas as spoken by the actors.

The 1923 Birmingham production was designed by Paul Shelving. Some black and white images survive and are shown in Figures 4, 5, 6 and 7 on pages 54 and 55.22

Paul Shelving was chosen, again, to design costumes for Back to Methuselah at the

Malvern Festival play performed on August 20-22, 1929. He was a theatre designer for forty years for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and at the Shakespeare Theater in

Stratford-upon-Avon beginning just after World War I. It seems that Shelving would have free reign and be fully supported as Sir Barry Jackson was an early underwriter of

Shaw’s work.

The purpose of the Malvern Festival, inaugurated in 1929, by Sir Barry Jackson was to present George Bernard Shaw’s plays. On the twenty fifth birthday of the Birmingham

20 Lee Simonson and Theodore Komisarjevsky, Settings and Costumes of the Modern Stage (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1966).

21 Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, Theatrical Companion to Shaw A Pictorial Record of the First Performances of the Plays of George Bernard Shaw.

22 Ibid.

Repertory Theatre, from which the Malvern Festival grew, George Bernard Shaw contributed a commentary in appreciation of the work done by Sir Barry Jackson.

“He (Barry Jackson) named an annual sum that would have sufficed to support fifty laborers and their families. I remarked that this was not more than it would cost him to keep a thousand ton steam yacht. He said a theatre was better fun than a steam yacht, but said it in a tone of a man who could afford a steam yacht. That settled the matter.

The impossible had become possible. I handed over Methuselah.”23

With the support of Barry Jackson, it is quite possible that Shelving had a pleasant budget to work with for this 1929 production.

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin, TX is now home to a voluminous archive of the British theatrical costumier, B. J. Simmons & Co. (1857-1964) where a few of Shelving’s renderings are preserved.

Two of the images from Shaw’s The Apple Cart are included in Figures 8 and 9 on page

53 to give a favor as to the coloring and styles Shelving may have used in the Malvern

Festival’s 1929 Back to Methuselah. King Magnus looks very noble and the American

Ambassador resembles Uncle Sam, as an audience would expect them to appear.24

These early designers had only the viewpoint of their time period, the early Twentieth century period. In this production, in the year 2015, we are closer to the years 2170 and

3000, with industrial and technical advances added to our shared culture. Our fashions

23 Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, Theatrical Companion to Shaw A Pictorial Record of the First Performances of the Plays of George Bernard Shaw, 306.

24 Austin, The Univeristy of Texas at, Harry Ransom Center, 2015, accessed June 7, 2015, http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/bjsimmons/shaw/26_2.html#1.

13 have evolved greatly and we have more cultural history to draw upon in researching each character. For each one, inspiration was drawn from current or historical figures, and defined through the prism of what they might be like in the future.

In The Thing Happens, Burge-Lubin was based on British royalty, Barnabas is modeled after our modern stereotype of an accountant and Confucius is the one and only

Confucius. The Archbishop is knocked off of various clerical styles and Mrs. Lutestring is modeled after the Goddess of the Hunt, Diana. The Minster of Health was clearly described in the script.

In The Elderly Gentleman, he, himself, was modeled after modern British gentlemen.

The Envoy family could be mistaken for any political family about to make a public appearance. Napoleon is the one and only Napoleon. The long-livers were assembled from various hints and thoughts spurred from the script. Nurses, sailors, the George

Jetson cartoon family were a few images that popped into my mind. The Oracle and the spectacle assistants in the Temple were defined in the script.

In the end, all characters come together, ideas as to their appearances, were drawn from the script, history and the imagination. More detail for each character can be found in

Selection, Chapter 5, pages, 18-29 and in Figures 10-37 on pages 56-68.

Chapter 4. Incubation

This chapter will walk through the process of speculating about, thinking through and sketching preliminary designs for each character’s costume. The development of each character in my mind is reflected in the development of the costume design. The argument as to why each character was costumed as it was will also be put forth.

ARGUMENT:

Did George Bernard Shaw write Back to Methuselah to be a serious or silly play? Is he expressing a solid philosophy or is it just plain absurd? Does he want to make us think deep thoughts or is he just trying to make us laugh? Is it education or entertainment? Is he trying to lighten an otherwise gloomy culture?

If it is such a classic, why has it been performed only four times in its history? Is it too radical, too hard to understand, to uncomfortable? Are earthlings too immature to understand his ideas about running our world wisely?

There are so many questions and as many shelves of books on the topic of George

Bernard Shaw at the library.

My thesis is that George Bernard Shaw embraced the both serious and silly, therefore I choose to costume the characters humorously, leaving the seriousness to the script.

As Shaw himself said, “…there are no plays in which anything can happen but talk. Plays are all talk.”25

25 Archibald Henderson, George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century, 748.

This thesis will look at the third and fourth parts of Back to Methuselah separately. They are two different plays, set in different time periods with different characters and a philosophy that evolves a great deal in the time lapse between the two plays.

In the year 2170, society is led by the President, Burge-Lubin in The Thing Happens. He is frivolous and egotistical. Confucius is thoughtful. Barnabas wishes to abide by every rule. Long-livers have not yet threatened their standing in society. Long-livers, Mrs.

Lutestring and the Archbishop play along as short-livers to maintain their role in society.

The costumes chosen for each character reflect an extreme version of their occupation and personality, based on historical figures. Reflecting the uneasiness that there may be long-livers among them and the tension it causes, the costumes are designed to be kitschy and garish. This makes light of their current social standing, given the possibility that a new world order of long-livers could be coming into power.

In the year 3000, there are two classes of people in The Elderly Gentleman, the short- livers and the long-livers. The lifespan of the short-livers is less than one hundred years while the long-livers live to be up to 300 years old. This requires two sets of costume looks.

The first set, for the short-livers, are traditional, cling to the old ways, and reflect a culture where they are comfortable. The Envoy’s family is stereotypical of English society while Napoleon represents the French. George Bernard Shaw uses the Envoy’s family and the Napoleon character to mortify and discomfit both the English and French societies. Reflecting the short-livers’ wish to cling to the old ways, costumes are designed to slightly outmoded and frumpish, yet recognized as traditional. Napoleon is the French Napoleon, as viewers would expect. The

16 characters think they are in style, but we know better and it should make us laugh.

The second set, for the long-livers, are styled to reflect their utopian, utilitarian lifestyle.

They no longer care and hardly remember past times. The long-livers have moved beyond clothing as a reflection of their status in society, other than the number of their age-decade on their hat. Color and style are plain, with almost no recognizable traits of tradition, The Oracle, Zozim and Zoo only put on flamboyant costumes when they create a spectacle for the short-livers. Reflecting the fact that their clothing does not mirror their personality, costumes are designed to be serviceable, lackluster and uniform, varied only in style appropriate to their body type.

In Shaw’s meta-biological Pentateuch, where incomprehensible ideas are explored, the costumes serve as visual narrative. The visual first impression of the actors in costume gives the viewer a place to start when attempting to understand Shaw’ ideas. The costume choices made it possible for the audience to instantly identify personality traits of character. With an easy, visual understanding of the characters, viewers could then focus on Shaw’s incomprehensible ideas as delivered in the lines by each character.

Consistent costumes help to draw the listener into and through the complicated message of play.

While Shaw was making them think, my hope was that the costumes made them smile.

Chapter 5. Selection Decisions regarding the nineteen costumes for eight actors will be described in this section. It will include reasons for each choice, additions and changes that occurred as the show was being built. The script notes specific costumes for some characters; thus

George Bernard Shaw cared what they wore, that said, he left the specific design to others.26

In addition to the script notes and my research, my advisor, Sigrid Johannesdottir played a key role in helping me define the costume designs. She was a constant source of inspiration, support and wisdom. Her recommendations, based on her wealth of experience, improved my designs and enabled me to produce professional quality work.

The Thing Happens

The Characters:

Burge-Lubin, President of the British Empire, Conrad Feininger, actor

The script describes Burge-Lubin as a stoutish, middle aged man, good looking and breezily genial. He is dressed in a silk smock, stockings, handsomely ornamented sandals and a gold fillet around his brow. He is a composition of Mr. Burge and Mr. Lubin from the second play, The Gospel of the Family Barnabas.

Research led to the British monarchy, both historical and contemporary. The blue satin tunic was embellished with regalia, gold braid and buttons, based on images of Prince

William and Prince Harry in military and royal uniforms. White tights covered his legs.

While it showed well on stage and most people named it as their favorite costume, flat

26 George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah Washington Stage Guild Script, ed. by Bill Largess, 2015.

18 lining the garment would have eliminated the static cling problem. On the other hand, the lightweight silky fabric with the look of pajamas, reflected the relaxed, irresponsible manner of the character.

The golden slippers were completed last as inspiration was slow in coming. After kicking around ideas of embellishing or painting slip-on sandals or shower shoes, cheap bedroom slippers were chosen and covered with a gold lame shell with curved toes resembling Persian slippers (think Aladdin) because in the year 2170 the British Empire is based in Baghdad. The actor commented on the comfort of his costume shoes.

The gold fillet was also based on British royal regalia. While some thought was given to a

Roman style laurel wreath spray painted gold, the buckram and garish gold glitter crown supported my thesis that Burge-Lubin was king of the British Empire in name only.

Some research images of golden butterflies or leaves on a laurel like headpiece would have been too distracting. The goal was not to have the audience wondering what was on his head, but to listen to the dialogue.

Men are not trained to keep knees together when seated at tables on a stage so matching blue satin boxers were provided so as not to offend the patrons in the front row.

With actor Conrad Feininger having strong opinions as to how his character is represented, I am glad to report that this costume and even the headpiece, was to his liking.

Minister of Health, Laura Giannarelli, actress

The script describes the Minister of Health in her first appearance as dressed in a corset, silk stockings and a dressing gown. Costume storage had a short silky red robe with red feathers around the sleeves. A black bra with white embroidery, also found in costume storage, and silk pajama pants completed the costume's sexy but modest objective.

Her second appearance is on the bridge of a steam yacht in glorious sea weather. She is

Venetian and tropical. A floral pink sleeveless dress and matching oblong scarf fit the role and her body without any alterations, was also found in costume storage.

The actress had long dark hair that she easily pulled back or let it fly free as the character required.

Both of these kitschy costumes supported the idea that short-livers were focused on personal pleasures and not the affairs of managing the health of the world.

Barnabas, Accountant General, Michael Avolio, actor

The script describes Barnabas as thin, unamiable and dressed similarly to Burge-Lubin but in duller colors and more common. George Bernard Shaw could not have known in

1921 that the 2015 stereotype of an accountant is to wear a green eye shade to shield eyes from harsh incandescent light bulbs and arm bands to hold one-size-fits-all sleeves and cuffs up and away from inky papers. He also would not have known the current business suit styles. Building on the modern stereotype would help the audience know his character instantly.

A pale blue striped button down shirt with cuffs and a shirt tail hem was created, long enough to reach his knees. White tights, black shoes, a black vest and a bow tie completed the look along with black elastic arm bands. A green eye shade and mustache were purchased on line.

The hemline proved to be too short for actor comfort on the sides where the shirt tail style hem was shorter. To remedy the problem, panels were stitched to lengthen the side hems and he was provided with ready to wear boxer shorts. While women would have been comfortable in opaque tights and a short skirt, men are not.

As Michael Avolio developed his character, it became apparent him that Barnabas wore a mustache. While Barnabas was a “stay within the rules accountant,” he, too, is self- possessed with his appearance as reflected in his eagerness to wear a cheesy mustache. It supported my thesis and completed the overall look of the character. The black mustache needed to be trimmed to fit and was an unexpected expense. Because the black mustache order did not arrive in time for the photo shoot, a gray mustache borrowed from the

GWU costume shop was used and darkened with mascara.

Confucius, Chief Secretary, Jacob Yeh, actor

The script describes Confucius as wearing a yellow gown, presenting the general appearance of a Chinese sage. Sore feet are also mentioned in the script. With the name

Confucius, one could only costume this character as the traditional Confucius, as research images reflect. Set apart from the British characters, he manages the affairs of the empire and so is dressed to appear reliable and trustworthy as you would expect. The actor was in agreement and happy with the costume. Jacob Yeh is Asian so only the addition of a kung-fu mustache and goatee was needed to complete the look. Classmate

Shirong Gu, a Chinese national, suggested that he needed a long braid or top knot, but

Jacob did not have long enough hair. With the reference to his sore feet, argyle socks were worn with heavy brown leather sandals to add interest as that line was delivered.

Archbishop of York, Brit Herring, actor

The script describes the Archbishop as wearing a white band around his throat set in a black stock, with a kilt of black ribbons. He wears soft black boots that button high up on his calves. His color scheme is black and white. He is like a fifty year old Reverend Bill

Haslam, a character from The Gospel of the Family Barnabas, with complete authority and self-possession. The Archbishop is one of the first to live to be almost 300 years old but he must dress to fit in with the short-livers. His own lines substantiate his costume

21 when he says, “Our department is full of survivals. Look at my tie! My apron! My boots!

They are all mere survivals; yet it seems that without them I cannot be a proper

Archbishop.”27

Traditional religious vestments were sourced for inspiration as well as modern fashion styles. The clerical collar, small white round buttons down the center front were the traditional elements that signified his role of Archbishop. The white shoulder detail, the bare arms and the ribbon skirt on a short tunic depicted the futuristic time frame. White tights and the tunic style are the two features that tie his costume to those of Burge-

Lubin and Barnabas.

The Archbishop, the first long-liver to be uncovered, is confident and assertive and this raises tension among the short-livers. His black and white color scheme presents a choice: is it right or wrong? Will this turn their world upside down or right side up? Will long-livers reign in a new world order? The answer is not so black and white to the short- livers.

Mrs. Lutestring, Domestic Minister, Lynn Steinmetz, actress

The script describes Mrs. Lutestring as a woman in the prime of her life with the walk of a goddess. She wears a Dianesque tunic, instead of a blouse, and silver coronet. Director

Largess commented that Mrs. Lutestring was unimpressive and authoritative.

My original design for this costume was knee length, belted and had a gathered scoop neck. A cape rimmed with Grecian key braid was to be attached at the shoulders.

27 George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah Washington Stage Guild Script, ed. Bill Largess. 2015.

The attempt to redesign a Greek goddess dance costume of a heavy ivory knit proved to be unsuccessful so a gold chiffon yardage was found in the costume shop. While the gold chiffon was light weight and fluid, there was a heavier under dress that gave it weight and gravitas. Mrs. Lutestring walked slowly and deliberately, not exactly light on her feet, with an air of supremacy, adding to the look the director was seeking. The new design was a richer color and easier to drape into the goddess-like gown that fit the character. A brooch was applied to the center front for a focal point, in lieu of having a waist line detail. An oblong scarf of the same fabric was used around the neckline. The actress had strong opinions as to what was flattering to her appearance on stage so after some negotiation, we agreed on the waistline and neckline treatment. She wore a wig of long blonde hair with a rhinestone band pinned in place. Her sandals were silver.

This revised design was a better reflection of the second long-liver to be revealed to the short-livers. Her air of authority and dominance, reflected in the gold color, caused the short-livers much agitation and anxiety.

The Elderly Gentleman

The Characters:

The Elderly Gentleman, Vinnie Clark, actor

The script describes the Elderly Gentleman as having sunburnt skin contrasting with his white whiskers and eyebrows. He wears a black frock coat, white waistcoat, lavender trousers and a brilliant silk cravat with a jeweled pin. He wears a tall hat of grey felt and patent leather boots with white spats. His shirt is of starched linen and his cuffs protrude from coat sleeves. His white linen starched collar is Gladstonian and his lines state that

“my clothes are perfectly in fashion in my native metropolis.”28 He carries a brandy flask, a silk handkerchief and a shilling in his pocket.

As The Elderly Gentleman, Part Three, builds on the previous play, The Gospel of the

Family Barnabas, Part Two, costumes for Part Three could not pre-date the costume designs of Part Two. Thus, the above description of a 19th century gentleman’s clothing could not be referenced. Instead, photographs of Washington Stage Guild’s production of The Gospel of the Family Barnabas,29 were referenced to design The Elderly

Gentleman costumes.

The Gospel of the Family Barnabas costumes were set in modern times, with clothing dated between 1950 and 1980. Building on that time frame, the whole Envoy family is dressed in clothing that would be modern, now, between 1980 and 2015 with a few oddities thrown in for interest.

The Elderly Gentleman is dressed in a black suit and white shirt that Washington Stage

Guild owns, specifically for Vinnie Clark. To fashion it “according to his native metropolis,”30 a gray stripe cravat with a pearl pin was used for a neck tie. The silk handkerchief played a large role in his acting so it was not plain white, but shiny, silky red. The color played nicely off of The Oracle’s fuchsia-red elbow length gloves. He wore

28 George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah Washington Stage Guild Script, ed. Bill Largess. 2015.

29 Back to Methuselah, 0688, Washington Stage Guild. Directed by Bill Largess, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries, James J. Taylor Collection of the Washington Area Performing Arts Video Archive. 2014. 30 George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah Washington Stage Guild Script, ed. Bill Largess. 2015.

24 his own size 13 EEE black shoes. While it was included in the photo shoot, he chose not to use the black felt hat offered him as it encumbered his acting.

The Envoy, Brit Herring, actor

The script describes the Envoy as an imperfectly reformed criminal disguised by a good tailor. He is a typical politician with a hat and papers in his pocket. The dress of family is coeval with Elderly Gentleman and suitable for the public official ceremonies in western capitals in the XVIII-XIX fin de siècle. Characteristics of fin de siècle, end of the century, included decadence, excess, moral turpitude and spiritual decline.31 Society was immersed in anxiety about impending change. One could say the same about the end of the twentieth century so it is appropriate that costumes of the Envoy family reflect the similar characteristics.

The Envoy wears a pinstripe suit with a neck tie, shoes and pocket square. The pinstripe fabric is distasteful, a bit flashy and attracts attention to the wearer.

The Envoy's Wife, Lynn Steinmetz, actress

Beyond mentioning that the Envoy’s family is dressed coeval with the grandfather, no other description is mentioned for the Envoy’s wife in the script.

As the research suggested, two piece suits and conservative dresses were tried but the floral two piece dress with a matching floral hat was chosen. The dress was circa 1980 but the hat was defiantly pre-1970. The purple bow was replaced with a green ribbon bow. She carried a handbag and wore low heeled pumps. Someone said that she looked

31 Penelope J. E. Davies et al., Jansen's Art History: The Western Tradition, Volumes I and II, (8th Edtion) (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2011), 903.

25 like Queen Elizabeth, confirming my effort to make the Envoy’s wife into the perfect political spouse.

The Envoy's Son, Michael Avolio, actor

The script mentions that the son is wearing knickers and a bowtie, vest or waistcoat, but that would pre-date The Gospel of the Family Barnabas, Part Two, so more modern clothing, similar to the rest of the family was chosen. Research images led to all sorts of pop culture young men. My undergraduate costume shop mates recommended looking at One Direction, Girl Meets World, Jaden Smith, and Enders Game. As the character developed into a mama’s boy, it became clear that a rebellious look would not do.

A light blue knit short sleeved polo shirt, black pants, belt and shoes helped create the ten year old boy that the actor portrayed. The script only mentioned an interest in postcards. The actor added a camera, something that would not have been possible when

George Bernard Shaw wrote the play in 1924.

Clinging to the old ways, the Elderly Gentleman, the Envoy, his wife and son are dressed to reflect their traditional attitudes, as the audience would expect. The characters believe that they are quite fashionable and attractively dressed but the audience should see them as outmoded and frumpish, thus adding to the humor of the scenes.

Napoleon, General Aufsteig, Emperor of Turania, Conrad Feininger, actor

The script describes Napoleon as a compact figure, clean shaven, saturnine and self- centered. He is very much like Napoleon I, wearing a military uniform of Napoleonic cut.

He carries a piston and whistle.

While Director Bill Largess agreed that any modern dictator would work as a role model for this character, the actor definitely saw himself as none other than Napoleon.

Because the Envoy family’s costumes were more current, my thought was to also bring the Emperor of Turania into a more modern time frame. It would have to be a universally known brutal dictator or a compilation of two or more very bad powerful men. Adolf Hitler’s mustache, Mao Tse Tung’s red armband, and Brezhnev’s eyebrows were some of the iconic looks that could have made up a composite bad guy. Navigation between Director Largess’ easy going path and the strong willed actor, regarding this look, was a challenge but the outcome was flawless. The Napoleonic hat was perhaps the best single item of the costume.

A blue 18th century coat was found in costume storage and embellished to look as

Napoleonic as possible. Epaulettes, fringe, military medals and fabric braid were added to the coat. The white mock turtle neck worn under was embellished with rows of red, blue and gold braid, stitched horizontally. White tuxedo pants, matching cummerbund, boots and a Napoleonic hat finished the ensemble.

Fusima, Laura Giannarelli, actress

The script describes Fusima in a silk tunic and sandals, a cap with #2 on it and a tuning fork in her girdle. Zozim and Zoo, the other two nurses are dressed similarly with #1 on their caps.

Mock ups of the nurse’s caps were started soon after the commitment had been made and I was in the middle of a millinery class. Brown paper hats of different sizes and shapes were experimented with. The #1 nurses were made to be rounded, softer and much like a regular old fashioned nurse’s cap while the #2 nurse cap was made larger, more angular and harsh. Foss-Shape and Wonderflex were experimented with but in the end, stiff interfacing served the purpose. The final design was edited and simplified and

27 trimmed with silver Celtic knot buttons at the center back. This, of course, was purposeful and symbolic of the long-liver’s home in Ireland. See the photo on page 88.

Gray polyester knit fabric with a black pinstripe was found with enough yardage and within budget to build all three costumes. All three had V-shaped collars with silver braid, black vertical stripes accented with silver braid and short horizontal black and silver-braid stripes at the side waistline. All three characters needed pockets for their tuning forks.

Fusima, in her second century, was costumed in an ankle length A-line dress which was most flattering for her body type.

Zozim, Jacob Yeh, actor

The script describes Zozim as dressed like the women but with a #1 on his hat. Pants and a tunic were most appropriate for him as a male character. He wore black shoes.

He also puts on a Druid robe, long wig and false beard in a later act. A brown tweed robe was pulled from costume storage and slit down the center front so that he could get it on and off easily. His white wig and beard were ordered on line.

Zoo, Stephanie Schmalzle

The script describes Zoo as a girl of 50, rather childish, with #1 on her cap. She is 56 years old, like a flapper and has had four babies.

She is dressed in an above the knee sheath, styled as the two above with black pantyhose and black sandals. In a later scene, she wears a purple mantle. The mantle, pulled from costume storage, was predominantly blue with purple trim but filled the need as it was.

These three characters acted in unison, seemingly void of personality, with lackluster costumes in a gray color, serviceable and uniform. This supports the idea that these long- livers have moved beyond using clothing as a reflection of their personality.

The Oracle, Laura Giannarelli, actress

The Oracle is described as veiled and robed, of majestic carriage with a face that makes

Napoleon shriek. She is called The Pythoness and is draped and hooded in voluminous folds of a single piece of grey-white stuff. She exudes a super-naturalness, as if she is not solid, that you could go right through her.

The serpent dress that was built for Laura Giannarelli for In the Beginning, Part One, was brought back for The Pythoness. Shaw has a theme of characters running through the five plays, where they re-appear or appear as amalgamations of earlier characters.

The dress is floor length and trained, hooded and has bell sleeves that drag the floor. The fabric is earth toned and of a snake skin print.

The Oracle costume was added on top of the serpent dress. Layers of dark green tulle, sourced from the costume shop, were used to create an ethereal, otherworldly look. The headpiece veiled her face and down her back to the floor in varying lengths. The front layers, attached to a velcroed collar covered the front of her body. The face veil was easily lifted to scare Napoleon.

As the actors learned their lines and developed their characters, so did I revise and alter my costume designs to better reflect the personalities and the ideas of the play. The purpose of each costume was to be compatible with each character and that the actors be comfortable in their costumes. In a play where inconceivable ideas are introduced, a visual narrative that is easy for the audience to follow was important. The lines delivered by the actors were serious and profound while the costumes were as Laura Giannarelli said “clever, sharp, inventive and silly.

Chapter 6. Implementation

From orientation and initial research to the emerging relationships with the director and cast, this chapter will outline the work of building, buying and borrowing costumes. It will include the process of shopping, sewing, fitting and altering the costumes. A final costume plot and expense report will illustrate the design’s completion and justify the expenditures.

Months before this capstone project began, the Production Design graduate students at

The George Washington University’s Department of Theater and Dance were called together for an orientation meeting. The expectations and guidelines of the department were presented clearly and concisely. My notes outline that the writing portion should include a fully supported argument, that all problems and successes be explored and that it illustrate the successful culmination of an academic career.

My research into Back to Methuselah began by browsing movies from the 1920s but I found them to be unrelated to this project because their purpose was for profit and to entertain people. George Bernard Shaw’s purpose was to share his philosophy and make people think. Entertainment and profit were his not priorities. The movies did give a backdrop as to what that generation thought the future looked like but with the script’s notes and my own ideas, I designed the costumes.

As these plays were sequels to the two earlier plays, my best research was watching the videos of In the Beginning and The Gospel of the Family Barnabas. To do so meant encountering police tape at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library on the way to the

Washingtoniana exhibit, only to find the films were not there. It also meant enduring bitter cold weather on the way to the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing

Arts Center library to successfully view the only copy of the Washington Stage Guild’s performances.

My costume design had to evolve from those worn in In the Beginning and The Gospel of the Family Barnabas so that the audiences would see the consistency and believe that the story line is continuous. Some of the actors were repeat performers to help the audience see the connection of the plays. A scarf of the same fabric as the serpent dress worn by Laura Giannarelli in In the Beginning was used in The Gospel of the Family

Barnabas. The serpent dress reappeared in The Elderly Gentleman on the Oracle. Even characters evolved from one play to the next. Mr. Burge and Mr. Lubin evolved into

Burge-Lubin and the Reverend William Haslam evolved into The Archbishop. These things were subtle but significant in building the association between the plays.

Additional information was gathered from reviewing the thesis papers written by

Basmah Alomar32 on Emma and Adalia Tonneyck33 on Hair. Sources for local costumes at various theatres and colleges were helpful as were notes regarding costume plots and presentations to the director.

Meeting Director Bill Largess and discussing with him what his vision for the play was much anticipated. Time frame for the setting and personality traits for the characters were the most important questions.

32 Basmah M. Alomar, Costume Designs for Michael Bloom's Stage Adaptatin of Jane Austen's Emma. Thesis, Department of Theater and Dance, Columbian College, Washington D. C.: The George Washington University, 2014. 33 Adalia Tonneyck, Creation of the Tribe, HAIR: The American Love-Rock Musical. Thesis, Department of Theater and Dance, Columbian College, Washington, D. C.: The George Washington University, 2012.

Parts One and Two of Back to Methuselah were set in our modern times, not that of

George Bernard Shaw. How would the director like Parts Three and Four to play off of

Parts One and Two? Would he prefer running them in succession or go back in time, being consistent with the script notes regarding costumes? His answer was to build off the designs in Parts One and Two, staying consistent with the earlier productions. This affected The Envoy and his family and the Emperor of Turania as they represented the two cultures that Shaw was ridiculing.

The Emperor of Turania character was based on Napoleon but that would be inconsistent with the more modern time frame. This lead me to think about designing the costume based off of more modern dictators such as Qaddafi, Kim Jong Il, or Idi

Amin. While Director Bill Largess was initially approving of any modern dictator, the actor, Conrad Feininger requested that it be “more Napoleon.” Shaw’s underlying attempt to make fun of the French in his play also made it important to maintain the

Napoleon image in the character.

Meeting all the actors for the first time at the first reading gave me a chance to see them in action, make notes of their physical attributes and take their measurements. Specific notes were taken on Laura Giannarelli’s long hair, Jacob Yeh’s thick hair and Lynn

Steinmetz’s collection of wigs. Laura Giannarelli was overheard telling some visitors that the men don’t wear makeup.

It was at the first reading that I presented my designs to the cast, company and visitors of the Washington Stage Guild. My designs were displayed on the edge of the stage and after my verbal presentation, they were passed around the room for all to see again.

Reactions were all good and no changes were recommended. Everyone said that, of

32 course, the accountant should be wearing a green visor, even though they didn’t exist in

Shaw’s time. Director Bill Largess liked them all.

Stage Manager Arthur Nordlie was congenial to work with. The calendar that he updated and shared kept of us all on the same schedule. He assisted me in scheduling fitting times and granted my request for specific photographs of the actors for documentation.

To assist him, I copied the actors on my emails regarding my visits to the theatre for costume fittings.

Much thought and study went into preparing to document my design ideas. Developing character descriptions by act and scene was useful in examining each character’s traits.

Files of research images for each character were saved and referenced frequently during the design process. The research images were more inspiration than factual as this show is futuristic and ideas must be extrapolated from what we can learn about this play. A skeleton costume plot was helpful in charting out what would be built, borrowed or purchased. It lead to a concise costume plot, complete with lists of items each actor would need.

With research in hand and ideas in my head, I designed the basic costumes for each member in my sketchbook.

Stumbling upon the book, Digital Costume Design: Pens, Pixels, and Paint by Annie O.

Cleveland, I learned how Poser, and the Adobe products, Photoshop, Illustrator and

InDesign can assist a designer in creating renderings.

I ordered the Poser software and began learning this new technology. Successful in creating and printing human bodies, posed and in the general shape of each of my actors, the next digital artistic step proved to be too steep. Learning to paint costumes on a computer screen with such a short time line to opening night was overwhelming.

Resources of time and energy would be better put into building, pulling, altering and delivering costumes.

“This may be a huge-ly steep hill to climb: learning Poser, Photoshop and InDesign, but the technology train has left the station and I want my MFA to reflect that.” DK 3pm

1/19/15

Using the printed Poser templates of ready-made human bodies, designing the shape and color of each costume was easier and much quicker. Changing styles and colors without having to recreate a human body each time proved to be stress free and allowed for more time to create different versions of each costume. By using letter size paper, scanning the image is possible on home printers and the files are not too large to transmit by email.

With all parties approving my costume designs, the next step was to create them. My resources included The George Washington University Theater and Dance department’s significant collection of costumes, a generous budget allowance and student workers.

The most economical option is to pull costumes from storage. Unfortunately, the university’s costume collection has been hit with tragedy and transitions. Costume storage at The George Washington University has moved three times in three years, been

34 water damaged twice and now finally has a nice new home in the Dimock Gallery in the lower level of the Lisner Auditorium.

Its first home was in L5 of the Marvin Center parking garage. Confining, oppressive and airless would be appropriate words to describe the space. The concrete ceilings varied from six feet high by the door down to five feet at the back of the space. Because of the low ceiling, the pipes holding the clothes were hung low, so that even street length dresses dragged on the floor. The circumference of the pipes that the clothing hung on was too large for standard clothes hangers so a lot of costumes fell to the floor. The room did not have enough pipe length for all clothes to be hung so much of the collection was stored in plastic tubs, never seeing the light of day. The florescent lights were few and far between and students frequently used head lamps to spelunk for costumes. Luckily there were no rodents. There was also no heat or air conditioning, only a small fan to keep the air circulating and mold and mildew at bay.

With the philosophy that you cannot make dinner until the kitchen is clean, I set out to organize the room before I could pull costumes for my first costume design assignment at GWU. With the help of some students and forty plus hours of work, we were able to sort the clothing by type and color and place markers on the pipes to label what was stored in that location. Wire hangers were bent to fit the larger pipes. Bins of sweaters, petticoats and various other clothing items were labeled and stored in a logical order, stacked on steel shelving and along the dark back wall.

An SUV with a ski rack took out a ceiling fire sprinkler pipe in the adjacent parking garage, causing the room to be flooded and damage all the clothing touching the floor, which was a lot.

The second home of the costume collection was Building YY. It is a historic row house on campus, vacated by every other department so left empty for our use. The campus police warned us of rodents that came in through a hole in the eaves. Temporary pipes were hung from the ceiling for the wet clothing to dry but most of the collection was laid on desks and chairs in the various rooms. We were able to keep the men’s upstairs and the women’s downstairs, but without shelves or pipes to hang clothing, nothing was organized and everything was in piles.

It was during this interval that costumes for Back to Methuselah were pulled. Sorting through piles of clothing that was heaped upon desks, chairs and the floor proved a challenge. There was no way to know if the best possible costume piece had been found or if the perfect piece was still hiding in the next pile in the next room. The men’s suits were particularly challenging as the coats and pants had been separated years ago and now laid in different rooms. As in the L5 storage space, there was no heat and it was winter. Eventually the Envoy’s family, the spectacle robes and some accessories were found in the piles at YY.

Frozen, then thawed water pipes in Building YY, lead to water raining down on most all of the costumes. The collection was then sent to a dry cleaning company for restoration.

The third home of the costume collection is in the Dimock Gallery in the lower level of the Lisner Auditorium. It is a spacious room that has been fitted with strong, double decker pipes on which to hang clothing. There is room for steel shelving against one wall and for a dressing room in one corner. It is well lit and is easily accessed on foot. Rolling racks to and from the theatre is out of the question because there is no elevator to move them to the upper street level. The collection of costumes were returned in good condition from the dry cleaners, all hung on hangers or folded neatly in cardboard boxes.

The one downside is that nothing was sorted, organized or delivered in any systematic way.

Another forty plus hours of my labor, with some student help, went into organizing the collection. Men’s shirts are sorted by size and color, suit coats are being reunited with their matching pants and shoe bins are lined up by color, size and style. Women’s dresses are lined up by color, blouses by color and style and knit sweaters are boxed by color.

Period clothing is lined up by color and dance wear is hung on hangers where it is easy to see. Unique and unusual items are hung on the high pipes while the commonly used items are at eye level. Over one hundred paper plates with cut out centers mark the pipes with the type and color of clothing stored there. The goal is to make the organizational agenda so obvious that anyone will be able to pull and restock items accurately.

For the first time, it is a pleasure to go to costume storage and the hope is that this valuable collection will get more use by not just GWU students but the wider theatre community as well.

Many of the costumes for Back to Methuselah were so unique that building them would be the best option. The ability to actually thread a needle, sew a seam and build a costume is a rare skill as it is no longer taught in middle schools. Our grandmother’s generation sewed out of necessity but with so much cheap clothing available to consumers now, sewing is a lost art. Yet, in costuming a show, it is a necessary and valuable resource. There were nine student workers in the Theatre and Dance costume shop that assisted on this project. Some of them were experienced and trusted stitchers while others were given simple tasks and closely supervised. One of my graduate classmates assisted frequently and that was much appreciated as sometimes there was more work to be done than workers to do the tasks.

Planning and managing the work force took priority so as to maximize fabrication and deliver costumes on time. Creating assignment lists, setting up work stations and checking off items on fitting note sheets helped the stitchers know their assigned tasks and stay on a path to complete them. Simple things like maintaining a one inch seam allowance on all projects and following pin markings when altering were matters that needed monitoring to maintain quality.

The costume shop was particularly busy as The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek opened the same night on the GWU Mainstage and my classmate, Sydney Moore designed those costumes.

With two shows going up simultaneously and students working on both, it was impossible to keep track of the hours worked on each. My estimation is two to three hundred total hours, with ten to fifteen hours of labor per costume, or more, if fitting or design had to be altered. Nine costumes were made from scratch and ten costumes were pulled and then altered.

Early mornings were quiet at the costume shop and used to prepare for each day and utilize the uncluttered space. My work space in the costume shop was always shifting as a new ironing board was being installed and many things were getting moved around.

Gratitude, in the form of thank you notes or chocolate, is always a good motivator and was used frequently when tasks were completed.

After pulling and building costumes, the last option is to purchase items. My budget was

$1000. To compare with other recent thesis show budgets, Basmah Alomar spent $2200 on her thesis, Emma and Sara Abdulghani spent $600 on Vanishing Point. My receipts came to $659.64 with the details outlined on Table 5, page 44. It was a reasonable amount to spend and I am pleased to say that this show came in under budget.

The main expenditures were for fabric and for accessories. Joann Fabrics was the source of some fabrics used and G Street Fabrics had a clearance table where the fabric for the three nurses was found. My color choice changed on the fly as the only color with enough yardage was gray. It turned out to be fortuitous as that color was much better than the surgical green one I had originally chosen.

The mustaches, the green visor and white men’s tights were ordered on line. The men’s tights were ordered a size larger as they run small and in duplicate if there was not enough time to launder them between shows.

The implementation of Back to Methuselah was a large undertaking. From building personal relationships to building costumes, it was a challenging and invigorating experience. My managerial skills, time management and record keeping abilities were all enhanced by this project. The play had a historic and successful run and I am pleased to have been part of it.

Table 1 Back to Methuselah Costume Sources Part III The Thing Happens Vinnie Conrad Laura Michael Jacob Yeh Lynn Britt Stephanie Clark Feininger Giannarelli Avolio Steinmetz Herring Schmalzle

Mrs. Burge- Barnabas, Confucius, Arch- Minister of Lutestring, Lubin, Accountant Chief bishop of Health Domestic President General Secretary York Minister

Buy slippers eye shade mustache white tights white tights white tights mustache

Build slippers blue tunic gold robe gown black tunic blue tunic arm bands belt

Borrow undershirt black bra black shoes sandals nude tights dance boots red robe boxers argyle socks sandals mock turtle pajama pants undershirt undershirt coronet undershirt shoes bow tie wig resort dress black vest jewelry scarf jewelry

Table 2

Back to Methuselah Costume Sources Part IV The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman Vinnie Conrad Laura Michael Jacob Yeh Lynn Brit Stephanie Clark Feininger Giannarelli Avolio Steinmetz Herring Schmalzle The Elderly Envoy's Napoleon Fusima The Son Zozim The Envoy Zoo Gentleman Wife Buy hat wig and beard Build uniform coat gray dress nurse's cap #1 floral hat gray dress white mock nurse's cap gray black nurse's cap #1

turtle neck #2 tunic green veiling, black pants

two pieces Borrow coat, vest and uniform coat black tights black shoes druid's robe 2 piece dress suit, jacket black tights pants and pants suspenders white pants black sandals socks black socks nude tights dress shirt black sandals white shirt boots, socks gold shoes tan pants black shoes pumps green tie blue robe cravat with white mock python dress black belt jewelry socks

pearl stud turtle neck red silk cummerbund Lt. blue polo handbag shoes

handkerchief shirt black socks suspenders floral hat black shoes undershirt

Table 3

Back to Methuselah Costume Plot Part III The Thing Happens Vinnie Conrad Laura Michael Jacob Yeh Lynn Brit Herring Stephanie Clark Feininger Giannarelli Avolio Steinmetz Schmalzle

Handsome Mrs.

Barnabas, Confucius, Burge-Lubin, Woman, Lutestring, Arch-bishop of Accountant Chief President Minister of Domestic York General Secretary Health, Minister golden slippers black lingerie black shoes gold robe Greek soft black boots goddess chiton blue tunic red robe white tights robe belt nude tights white tights gold fillet bronze lt blue shirt sandals silver white mock turtle pajama pants tunic sandals neck white tights gold shoes green eye beard and silver black tunic Parlor of the President the of Parlor shade goatee coronet undershirt "resort wear" arm bands undershirt undershirt dress static guard bright large bow tie argyle socks spray scarf jewelry undershirt black vest

Table 4

Back to Methuselah Costume Plot Part IV The Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman Vinnie Conrad Laura Michael Jacob Yeh Lynn Brit Stephanie Clark Feininger Giannarelli Avolio Steinmetz Herring Schmalzle The Envoy's The Elderly Napoleon Fusima The Son Zozim Zoo Wife Envoy Gentleman coat, vest uniform coat gray black black shoes gray black 2 piece suit, gray black and pants dress tunic dress jacket and dress pants suspenders white pants nurse's cap #2 socks black pants nude tights dress shirt nurse's cap #1 white shirt boots, socks black tights tan pants black socks pumps green tie black tights cravat with cummerbund black sandals black belt black shoes jewelry socks black pearl stud sandals red silk suspenders light blue nurse's cap handbag shoes handkerchief polo shirt #1

Pier on Galway Bay/Temple onGalway Pier black socks hat floral hat black shoes undershirt white mock turtle neck

python dress druid's robe blue robe green veiling, wig and two pieces long beard Temple gold shoes

Table 5 Expense record

Back to Methuselah

The Thing Happens The Elderly Gentleman Conrad as Vinnie as Burge Lubin $114.96 Elderly Gentleman $0.00

Laura as Conrad as Minister of Health $0.00 Napoleon $47.99

Michael as Laura as Barnabas $106.82 Fusima $34.16

Jacob as Michael as Confucius $40.70 Envoy's Son $0.00

Lynn as Jacob as Mrs. Lutestring $10.36 Zozim $29.98

Brit as Lynn as Archbishop $73.11 Envoy's Wife $0.00 taxes $9.94 Brit as Envoy $0.00 shipping $26.99 Stephanie as transportation $153.15 Zoo $11.48

Laura as The Oracle $0.00

$536.03 $123.61 $659.64

Chapter 7. Evaluation To make the best better is a motto that I live my life by. In order to do that, one must first find their personal best. The costume design for Back to Methuselah was my personal best on opening night, February 19, 2015. Every resource available to me was drained.

Every creative idea was put forth. Every costume was completed, delivered on time, and within budget. I am pleased with the results and proud that my name is listed on the program.

The next step is to top that personal best using new resources, new training and new energy. Unfortunately, I cannot re-do Parts Three and Four of Back to Methuselah but I can apply what I have learned here to future costume designs.

That said, others saw my work and had varying opinions. There were six Washington D.

C. area theatre critics that wrote about Back to Methuselah.

Robert Michael Oliver thinks that the costumes could have added more to the science fictional overtones of this production’s futuristic worlds. The article lead with photos of the Oracle with the Elderly Gentleman and Napoleon with the veiled Oracle. Assuming those were not the disappointing costumes, that leaves the three nurse costumes to be the ones lacking science fictional overtones. The gray and black colors worn by the nurses were not my first choice but in the end served to illustrate the “despair that runs like an underground stream beneath every moment of these plays”. Perhaps they could have been more alien like the monsters created in Hollywood but that would not have served Shaw’s opinion that this play is “philosophy more than theatre, thinking of it read not witnessed.”34

34 Robert Michael Oliver, "'Back to Methuselah' at Washington Stage Guild (Review)," dcmetrotheaterarts.com, February 27, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015

John Stoltenberg did not mention costumes, set or lights but rather compared Shaw’s conveyance of ethical values and his vision of what needs to be, as delicious and savory fine dining is to a gourmand. Perhaps the costumes were the fine china that this satisfying meal was served upon, important to the ambiance but not on the menu.35

Roger Catlin is of the opinion the costumes communicate the idea of the future as envisioned in the 1920s. That was exactly my objective. He mentions the silly crown worn by Conrad Feininger as the powerless President of the British Empire and the

Confucius character played by Jacob Yeh, of Asian descent, who really runs the British

Empire in the year 3000 A.D. The visuals are familiar, comfortable and play along with the stereotypes portrayed by the lines.36

Leading with an image of Confucius, Burge-Lubin and Barnabas, one might assume that

Benjamin Tomchik approved of the costumes presented in The Thing Happens. He found the costumes for The Elderly Gentleman subpar in that he does not imagine short- lived tourists in the year 3000 A. D. looking like Midwest American tourists. Has

Tomchik seen Midwest American tourists in Washington, D. C., the tourist capital of

America? T-shirts, cut-off jeans and back packs on every one. They Envoy family dressed formally as if going to a civil ceremony, not casually as if they were off to the monuments. What Tomchik could not have known is that the script defines in detail how the Envoy should be costumed. Shaw describes the Envoy as an imperfectly reformed

35 John Stoltenberg, "Magic Time! 'Back to Methuselah' at Washington Stage Guild (Article)," dcmetrotheaterarts.com, February 27, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015, http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2015/02/27/magic-time-back-to-methuselah-at- washington-stage-guild/.

36 Roger Catlin, "Theatre Review: 'Back to Methuselah, Part Two' at Washington Stage Guild," mdtheatreguide.com, February 24, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015, http://www.mdtheatreguide.com/2015/02/theatre-review-back-to-methuselah- part-two-at-washington-stage-guild/.

46 criminal disguised by a good tailor. He is a typical politician with a hat and papers in his pocket. The dress of the traveling family followed suit, appropriately dressed for official public ceremonies in western capitals. This additional information should restore the credibility of Act Two in Tomchik’s eyes.37

“Costumer Debbie Kennedy has more and more fun with the costumes the farther the story gets from contemporary fashion.” says Brett Steven Abelman. As costume design must be substantiated by research and be historically correct, creativity in doing past and current style designs is restricted in the quest for accuracy. As this story is set far into the future, there were no restrictions on designing, freeing me to put men in tights and tunics and creating malicious nurse costumes. I appreciated the published photos of

Confucius, Burge-Lubin and Barnabas, even if you could not see their tights, and of Zoo, in her morose nurse dress with The Elderly Gentleman.38

Nelson Presley of the Washington Post concludes that the costumes are flat-looking and quirky in his final paragraph.

His opening paragraph calls attention to the skimpy gold crown and curly-toed golden shoes of Burge-Lubin. The crown and shoes may be quirky but they certainly got his attention. The audience knows immediately that the Burge-Lubin character is superficial

37 Benjamin Tomchik, "Washington Stage Guilds Captivating Back to Methuselah," BroadwayWorld.com, March 2, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015, http://www.broadwayworld.com/washington-dc/article/BWW-Reviews- Washington-Stage-Guilds-Captivating-BACK-TO-METHUSELAH-20150302#.

38 Brett Steven Abelman, "Shaw Sees the Future: Back to Methuselah," dctheaterscene.com, March 2, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015, http://dctheatrescene.com/2015/03/02/shaw-sees-the-future-back-to- methuselah/.

47 and malleable as the glitter flakes off of the crown and the curly-toed shoes remind them of Arabic slippers.

His introduction takes the reader to Ireland, 3000 A. D. where the long-livers dress vaguely like sailors. If that is how he interpreted the nurse’s black collars, then that would be appropriate for a sea faring people. The eccentric and British Elderly

Gentleman wears an ascot to show his character. He writes that the new Napoleon looks exactly like the old Napoleon. There is only one Napoleon in most peoples’ minds. He describes The Oracle’s robes as luscious as her raven hair cascades over them.

These things, he says, puts a sharp edge on Shaw’s satire and anger. So then, the costumes do serve Shaw’s purpose?

This may appear to be a cartoonish fractured fairy tale to Presley as he attempts to review three plays in one published critique, but he also credits Director Bill Largess with clear, sound arguments and interesting, fizzy, intellectual talk that illuminate Shaw’s visionary political ideas.39

Director Bill Largess had these kind words to say, “Working with Debbie Kennedy on

BACK TO METHUSELAH was a very satisfying and productive experience. She responded eagerly to my concepts and imaginatively interpreted them, even further than

I'd thought possible at our level of production. The costumes looked great and helped tell the odd story of the plays. Well-made costumes that looked good, arrived on schedule, and matched the wit of the script- what more could we ask?”

39 Pressley, Nelson, "Avast! Sunny Pirates, a frosty 'Frozen' and a forecast from Shaw," The Washington Post Theater & Dance. February 25, 2015, accessed April 26, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/avast- sunny-pirates-a-frosty-frozen-and-a-forecast-from-shaw/2015/02/25/2917effe- bc5b-11e4-8668-4e7ba8439ca6_story.html.

Other professionals praised my costume designs. Carl Gudenius said, “I am hearing good things.” Sigrid Johnnesdottir said, “The Washington Stage Guild has never had such good costumes” and that “I am becoming quite a costume designer.” Kirk Kristlibas said,

“My costumes for Burge-Lubin and The Archbishop should get an award.” These comments were very much appreciated.

As for me, I smiled through the whole photo shoot and first preview. I really enjoyed the story of the show for the first time. The golds and blues looked good together in The

Thing Happens. The Envoy family was color coordinated in green, blue and pastel. The silver braid really enhanced the nurse costumes and I love their hats. They are just the right combination of mean and throw back to good old fashioned nurses. The spectacle robes were oversized and imposing as they should be. My favorite visual was the Oracle, the Pythoness’ red gloves as paired with Vinnie, The Elderly Gentleman’s red breast pocket handkerchief. The final scene with her red-gloved hands reaching out to him as he sobs into his red handkerchief was epic.

The most treasured praise came from my family and friends who came to see the show.

Of course, their comments were overwhelmingly positive with the Burge-Lubin costume being the most favorite.

Let me conclude this thesis on that high note. My finest creative work, utilizing all of my intellectual and scholarly skill, the most demanding and intensive undertaking of my academic career is complete.

Bibliography

Abelman, Brett Steven. "Shaw Sees the Future: Back to Methuselah." dctheaterscene.com. March 2, 2015. http://dctheatrescene.com/2015/03/02/shaw-sees-the-future-back-to- methuselah/ (accessed 2015). Alomar, Basmah M. Costume Designs for Michael Bloom's Stage Adaptatin of Jane Austen's Emma. Thesis, Department of Theater and Dance, Columbian College, Washington D. C.: The George Washington University, 2014. Bergson, Henri. Creative Evolution. New York : Henry Holt and Company, 1911. Brit Herring. October 13, 2015. http://britherring.com/about (accessed October 13, 2015). Brown, Ivor. Shaw in His Time. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, LTD, 1965. Catlin, Roger. "Theatre Review: 'Back to Methuselah, Part Two' at Washington Stage Guild." mdtheatreguide.com. February 24, 2015. http://www.mdtheatreguide.com/2015/02/theatre-review-back-to-methuselah- part-two-at-washington-stage-guild/ (accessed 2015). Cleveland, Annie O. Digital Costume Design & Rendering. Los Angeles: Costume & Fashion Press/Quite Specific Media, 2014. Davies, Penelope J. E., Walter B. Denny, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Joseph Jacobs, Ann M. Roberts, David L. Simon. Jansen's Art History: The Western Tradition, Volumes I and II, (8th Edtion). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2011. Dukore, Bernar F. Bernard Shaw: Slaves of Duty and Trick of the Governing Class. Greensboro: ELT Press, Univeristy of North Carolina, 2012. Evans, Judith. The Politics and Plays of Bernard Shaw. Jefferson and London, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2003. Gibbs, A. M. A Bernard Shaw Chronology. Palgrave , 2001. Gillette, J. Michael. Designing With Light, An Introduction to Stage Lighting. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008. Austin, The University of Texas at, ed. Harry Ransom Center. 2015. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/bjsimmons/shaw/26_1.html#1 (accessed 2015). Austin, The Univeristy of Texas at, ed. Harry Ransom Center. 2015. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/bjsimmons/shaw/26_2.html#1 (accessed 2015). Henderson, Archibald. George Bernard Shaw: Man of the Century. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1956.

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Appendices

Figure 01. Back to Methuselah, produced in New York, 1922.

Figure 02. Back to Methuselah, produced in New York, 1922.

Figure 03. Back to Methuselah, produced in New York, 1922.

Figure 04. Back to Methuselah, Produced in Birmingham, 1923.

Figure 05. Back to Methuselah, produced in Birmingham, 1923.

Figure 06. Back to Methuselah,

produced in Birmingham, 1923.

Figure 07. Back to Methuselah, produced in Birmingham, 1923.

Figure 08. Research image for costume designer Paul Shelving, James Carew as Mr. Vanhattan, the American Ambassador in The Apple Cart at Queen’s Theatre, 1929. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/bjsi mmons/shaw/26_1.html

Figure 09. Research image for costume designer Paul Shelving, Cedric Hardwicke as Magnus in The Apple Cart at Queen’s Theatre, 1929. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/bjsi mmons/shaw/26_2.html.

Figure 10. Research image for Burge- Lubin, “The Telegraph”, accessed on January 15, 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/n ews/uknews/1497578/Harry- sets-his-sights-on- Household-Cavalry.html.

Figure 11. Research image for Burge- Lubin,”Rococo Revisited”, accessed on January 15, 2015, http://a-l-ancien- regime.tumblr.com/post/12 335903201/full-dress-coat- for-a-captain-over-three- years.

Figure 12. Research image for Barnabas from ‘The Athenaeum”, accessed on January 15, 2015, http://www.the- athenaeum.org/art/list.php?m=a&s =tu&aid=3863.

Figure 13. Research image for Barnabas from “The Australian Ant Hill”, accessed on January 15, 2015, http://anthillonline.com/lets- face-it-people-old-school- accounting-just-doesnt-cut-it- anymore/.

Figure 14. Research image for The Minister of Health, scene one, from “Denim ‘n Daisies” accessed on January 15, 2015, http://www.denimndaisies.com /holiday-gifts.html.

Figure 15. Research image for Confucius from “Family Matters,” accessed on January 15, 2015, http://www.ronitbaras.com/emotional- intelligence/personal-development-c/life- philosophy/.

Figure 16. Research image for Mrs. Lutestring from “Roman Gods and Monsters”, accessed on January 15, 2015, https://romangodsandmonsters .wordpress.com/ahne-larson- apollo-and-dianna/ahne-3/.

Figure 17. Research image for The Minister of Health, scene two, from “Boomerinas”, accessed on January15, 2015, http://www.boomerinas.com/201 3/09/.

Figure 18. Research image for The Archbishop from “Naturo Saga, Wolfgang Locker Update”, accessed January 15, 2015, http://www.narutosaga.comt11621- wolfgangs-locker-update.

Figure 19. Research image for The Archbishop from “Murphy’s Robes”, accessed on January 15, 2015, https://www.murphyrobes.com/index.cfm ?event=category.display&catid=41&pg=2 #quickship

Figure 20. Research image for The Archbishop from “I Sarti del Borgo, Roma”, accessed on January 15, 2015, http://www.isartidelborgo.com/sartoria- classica/gilet.html.

Figure 21. Research image for The Elderly Gentleman, from “Chad”, accessed on January 15, 2015, http://www.chad.co. uk/features- columnists/james- taylor-expert-on-the- royals-looks-back- on-10-years-of- prince-charles-and- camilla-and-asks- what-s-next-1- Figure 22. 7211947. Research image for The Elderly Gentleman from “The Daily Mail”, accessed on January 15, 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article- 2046282/Forgotten-hero-Kings-speech-The-cheeky-Glaswegian-cured- George-VIs-crippling-shyness.html. Photo caption: Bond: Louis Greig, right, was a steadfast supporter of 'Bertie', the future King George VI.

Figure 23. Research image for Napoleon from the “National Gallery of Art”, accessed January 15, 2015, http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collec tion/highlights/highlight46114.html. The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, 1812 by Jacques-Louis David

Figure 24. Research image for The Envoy from “Business 2 Community”, accessed January 16, 2015, http://www.business2community.co m/social-media/how-to-use-social- media-to-close-more-deals-without- being-a-pushy-salesperson- infographic-0308824

Figure 25.

Research image for The Envoy from “W. Fashionmall”, accessed January 16, 2015, http://wfashionmall.com/pcategory /lounge-suit-prom-tuxedos-italian- men-s-suits-mens-wedding-suits- for-men-wfashionmall/page/4/

Figure 26. Research image for The Envoy’s wife from “USAToday”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2014/01/2 2/maureen-mcdonnell-political-spouses- scandals/ap-a17g1hrc17-32p9-x-50- lines-a-pm-usa-dist-of-columbia/.

Figure 27. Research image for The Envoy’s wife from “Daily Kos”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/ 17/1162322/- This-week-in-the-War-on- Women-We-re-gonna-need-a-bigger- bathroom#.

Figure 28. Research image for The Envoy’s Wife from “The Grio”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://thegrio.com/2012/11/06/michelle- obama-and-ann-romney-style-who-will- make-the-more-fashionable-first- lady/#First lady Michelle Obama and Ann Romney.

Figure 29. Research image for The Envoy’s Son from “Buzz Feed Community”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://www.buzzfeed.c om/krayford/23- reasons-to-celebrate- one-direction- ep5q#.dmPwbyZXd.

One Direction

Figure 30. Research image for The Envoy’s Son from “People, Moms&Babies”, accessed on January 16, 2015,

http://celebritybabies.people.com/20 10/06/15/look-for-less-jaden-smiths- thriller-style/. Jaden Smith

Figure 31.

Research image for The Envoy’s Son from “Golf WRX”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://www.golfwrx.com/145 115/review-antigua-golf- shirts/.

Figure 32. Research image for Fusima, Zozim and Zoo from “Fashion Haute Line”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://fashionhauteline.tumblr.com/Fi gure 00.

Figure 33. Research image for Fusima, Zozim and Zoo from “Threads, Life, Leisure and Luxury, Pierre Cardin”, accessed on January 16, 2015, https://thediamondstand ard1.wordpress.com/201 4/10/02/pierre-cardin/.

Figure 34. Research image for Fusima, Zozim and Zoo from “GQ, Now Trending, Sci-Fi Wear”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://www.gq.com/story/now-

trending-sci-fi-future-wear.

Figure 35. Research image for The Oracle from “The Delphic Oracle”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://www.delphic- oracle.info/delphic- oracle.asp

Figure 36. Research image for The Oracle from Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus (1891), by John William Waterhouse, oil on canvas, 149 x 192 cm, located at Gallery Oldham, Oldham, UK, accessed January 16, 2015, http://www.johnwilliamwater house.com/pictures/search/?k =circe.

Figure 37. Research image for The Oracle from “Threads”, accessed on January 16, 2015, http://www.threadsmagazin e.com/item/7316/top-ten- weirdest-dresses. The Bubelle Dress by Philips

Figure 38.

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Figure 53. Conrad Feininger as Burge-Lubin and Laura Giannarelli as The Minister of Health, The Thing Happens, scene one.

Figure 54. The Cast of The Thing Happens.

Figure 55. Jacob Yeh as Confucius in The Thing Happens.

Figure 56. Michael Avolio as Barnabas in The Thing Happens.

Figure 57. Lynn Steinmetz as The Domestic Minister and Brit Herring as The Archbishop in The Thing Happens.

Figure 58. Conrad Feininger as Burge-Lubin and Laura Giannarelli as The Minister of Health in The Thing Happens, scene two.

Figure 59. Vinnie Clark as the Elderly Gentleman and Stephanie Schmalzle as Zoo in The Elderly Gentleman.

Figure 60. Vinnie Clark as the Elderly Gentleman, Jacob Yeh as Zozim and Laura Giannarelli as Fusima in The Elderly Gentleman.

Figures 61 ad 62. Stephanie Schmalzle as Zoo wearing the nurse’s cap, front and back views, showing the detail in The Elderly Gentleman.

Figure 63.

Conrad Feininger as Napoleon and Laura Giannarelli as the Oracle in The Elderly Gentleman.

Figure 64.

Michael Avolio as the Envoy’s Son, Brit Herring as the Envoy, Lynn Steinmetz as the Envoy’s Wife and the Elderly Gentleman, in The Elderly Gentleman.

Figure 65.

Brit Herring as the Envoy, Jacob Yeh in the Druid costume for the Temple scene and the Elderly Gentleman, in The Elderly Gentleman.

Figure 66.

Stephanie Schmalzle as Zoo in costume for the Temple Scene in The Elderly Gentleman.

Figure 67.

Laura Giannarelli as the Serpent and Vinnie Clark as the Elderly Gentleman in The Elderly Gentleman.