Adelaide Festival Centre | centrED Learning Resource centrED Learning Resource COSTUMES COSTUMES of the Performing Arts Collection Adelaide Festival Centre adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/learning Adelaide Festival Centre | centrED 1 centrED Learning Resource COSTUMES ABOUT THIS RESOURCE FURTHER READING This education resource is designed for secondary Broadway’s Chicest Costume Designers on Making students and teachers of: the Season’s Most Memorable Musical Looks Drama https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ broadway/7776759/broadway-costume-designers- Dance interview-tony-nominations Design & Technology – Textiles Creative Arts The Fascinating Process Behind how Broadway’s Most Spectacular Costumes are Made Activities suggested in this resource connect https://fashionista.com/2017/02/broadway- to the Australian Curriculum: costumes-design-tony-awards The Arts (Drama and Dance) through Responding and Making strands as well as Q&A with Tony Award-Winning Costume Designer Design and Technologies through Knowledge Paloma Young and Understanding and Processes and https://theatrenerds.com/interview-with-tony- Production Skills strands. award-winning-costume-designer-paloma-young/ Information and links correct at time of publication. RESOURCE developed by Adelaide Festival Centre staff: Alice Dilger Helen Trepa and Renee Gibson Photographer Grant Hancock (unless noted otherwise) COVER Image detail: Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle costume, Performing Arts Collection, Adelaide Festival Centre, designed by Sue Russell, State Theatre Company of South Australia 1981 adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/learning Supported by Adelaide Festival Centre | centrED 2 centrED Learning Resource COSTUMES THE PERFORMING ARTS skin it is the most intimate connection to the COLLECTION AT ADELAIDE person playing the character and therefore the performance. Literally, there may well be traces FESTIVAL CENTRE of Cate Blanchett’s DNA still clinging to the Nina costume she wore for The Seagull in 1997 here at The Performing Arts Collection at Adelaide Festival the Festival Centre. Centre celebrates the unique history of performing arts in South Australia. It represents the significant Performances are ethereal and once finished, a contributions South Australians have made, both paper program, review or our collective memory on stage and behind-the-scenes to theatre, opera, may be all that remains. Costumes are a tangible music, dance, musical theatre, film and circus. textile and provide material evidence. You can The 100,000+ objects in the collection range almost step into the character by stepping into the from the ephemeral (programs and ticket stubs); costume – metaphorically speaking, of course! artworks (paintings and photography); design (costume renderings and set models); architecture ADELAIDE FESTIVAL CENTRE’S (theatre fittings, furniture and décor); textiles (costumes and millinery) to the archives and event CENTRED SCHOOLS PROGRAM files dating back to 1858. centrED provides opportunities for Australian Costumes, for a performing arts collection, Curriculum and SACE linked art-making and speak very loudly as objects. They tell us what responding for students and teachers. performance they came from, the style of the designer who conceived them, and the size and Adelaide Festival Centre’s learning program, shape of the actor who wore them. Costumes show centrED provides exciting and comprehensive the talent of the seamstress who sewed them – experiences for teachers and students to engage giving clues about whether it was an amateur or with and access arts across all genres, combined professional production. They also provide evidence with cross-curriculum learning in South Australia’s of the less glamorous side of life under the lime premier performing arts centre. lights through perspiration marks, worn patches, centrED is supported by the Government of South tears, mends, cigarette burns, and lipstick stains. Australia through the Department for Education. Since a costume is worn directly on the actor’s Adelaide Festival Centre | centrED 3 centrED Learning Resource The Boy from Oz COSTUMES THE BOY FROM OZ Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre 5 January – 16 February 2000 Music Theatre Directed by Gale Edwards Costumes designed by Roger Kirk Todd McKenny as Peter Allen Australian Flag shirt costume, worn by Todd downtown cabaret star, Allen meets his partner. His McKenny as Peter Allen and designed by Roger partner dies from Aids and Allen too is sick with the Kirk for the ‘Still Call Australia Home’ scene in the disease and sadly dies in 1994. Gannon Fox Productions musical The Boy from Oz at Roger Kirk is one Australia’s most successful Festival Theatre in 2000. theatre, film and television costume designers, The Boy from Oz follows the life story of Peter winning the prestigious Tony Award for his King Woolnough from his humble beginnings in the and I costumes in 1996. Kirk can turn his hand to outback town of Tenterfield in New South Wales create costumes for an opera, realism play or a to the bright lights of Broadway as Peter Allen. TV show but is best known for his glam designs. His songs are skilfully interwoven throughout “I have been able to put my beaded stamp on the the musical telling the highs and lows of Peter’s show” said Kirk about his now famous sequined, incredible life through his own words and music. beaded and mirrored shirts for The Boy from Oz.1 When Peter Allen meets Hollywood royalty Judy The most iconic being the Australian flag shirt, Garland and marries her daughter Liza Minelli, his which Peter Allen first wore in 1983 at the opening life changes. As their marriage begins to crumble, of the Sydney Entertainment Centre performing the Allen faces the truth of his homosexuality. Now a finale ‘I Still Call Australia Home’. It has become Adelaide Festival Centre | centrED 4 centrED Learning Resource The Boy from Oz COSTUMES Allen’s signature shirt stylistically showcasing his Music theatre audiences are dazzled by effortless love and nostalgia for Australia with a spangled set changes and the seamless way characters nod to Broadway costuming with a 1980s vibe. The quickly and often change costumes throughout a symbolism of the flag is both inherently respectful show. For music theatre lovers it’s all about the but in true Australian style, a little cheeky. spectacle. The Boy from Oz features approximately 380 costumes, 100 wigs, 300 pairs of shoes plus lots Kirk recreated the shirt for the musical having it of spare maracas and whistles. There are twelve specially beaded in India. When Todd McKenney was dressers and three wardrobe staff whose sole job is reunited with the shirt he said “It’s very nostalgic for to repair and maintain all the costumes.4 me seeing this shirt – I thought it was going to be a fake. This one is special because it’s the original one Todd McKenney as Peter Allen had countless that was beaded. Because it’s theatre and things get costumes changes, which meant design challenges damaged, there were a number of different versions for Kirk. “Plotting him was quite difficult because of that shirt made, but this one is the real deal.”2 he rarely leaves the stage,” Kirk recalled.5 A costume plot is a chart drawn up by the designer When thinking about his overall design vision for who records the character’s scenes, when and The Boy from Oz, Kirk says “there is an image that how much time they have to change and what their you have to create. You don’t have to reproduce it, costumes consist of. In a big musical with a number but you have to create the illusion of it.” Meaning of actors and chorus, the costume plot is essential that the costumes for big productions do not have to the precise timing and smooth running of all the to be exact replicas but should have the right spirit, costume changes, which in turn is critical for a live appeal, or period feel for the show or character. “So, performance. don’t worry about period shoes. As long as the basic image is right and everyone behind him has the Kirk’s advice to aspiring costume designers starting right look, you’ll be ok”, Kirk encourages.3 out in the industry “is to learn how to draw – this is by far your most important tool to communicate your ideas to directors, actors and costume makers”.6 Image: Todd Mckenney with The Boy from Oz costume. 1Litson, J 1999, `Roger Kirk’, Live Design https://www.livedesignonline.com/mag/roger-kirk 2Gilbertson, M 2016, `Todd’s Trip Down Memory Lane’, Adelaide Now 3Litson, J 1999, `Roger Kirk’, Live Design https://www.livedesignonline.com/mag/roger-kirk 4Tracy, J 1999, `Wizards of Oz’, Sunday Mail 5Litson, J 1999, `Roger Kirk’, Live Design https://www.livedesignonline.com/mag/roger-kirk 6 Hawes and Curtis https://www.hawesandcurtis.co.uk/blog/features/interview-with-42nd-street-costume-designer-roger-kirk Adelaide Festival Centre | centrED 5 centrED Learning Resource The Boy from Oz COSTUMES THE BOY FROM OZ – PETER ALLEN RESPONDING MAKING 1 When looking at The Boy from Oz shirt, what do 1 Research another Australian icon (Steve you immediately notice about the colour, fabric Irwin, Cathy Freeman, Jimmy Barnes, Goth and design of this piece? Whitlam, Eddie Mabo, AC/DC, Jessica Mauboy etc.) to inspire a new mainstage biographical What do the design choices of this costume help production. Focussing on a key moment of their us understand about Peter as a character? life, create a mood board* for the costume they 2 The real Peter Allen was well known for his would wear in that moment. Think about design flamboyant personality and costumes. After elements such as texture, colour, shape and being used for many years in Qantas advertising, how they can help tell the story of the character his song, ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ became in that moment on a large stage such as Festival an iconic song close to the heart of many Theatre.