The Shifting Heart Costume Design Reflection

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When constructing costume designs for a performance many factors must be considered. Style of theatre and setting of the play were my main focuses as costume designer for my performance of “The Shifting Heart” by Richard Beynon. As costume designer I took into account the realistic style of the play and the 1950’s era it was set in, when forming ideas. I considered how the costumes would assist in the audience’s realization of the performance. As the style of the play was realistic, the costumes needed to be true to the time period; however I was limited by availability and time. I had quite a few ideas for my designs after completing research on the type of clothing worn during 1950’s in Australia. My designs were quite simple, nothing too extravagant, all appropriate to the time period. I wanted to use these as they would have showed the audience where and when the play took place and also shows some extra details about the characters, such as origin and religion. My character was a 34 yr old, pregnant, Italian woman. The costume I designed for her was I simple dress, flowing straight out from the bust, hiding the pregnant belly. Accompanying that was a small cross necklace and no shoes. I wanted the dress to hide the belly as much as possible as I found in my research this was a common design in maternity cloths in the fifties. As she is Italian, it was more than likely that she was catholic. In order to show this to the audience, I incorporated the cross into the costume. The purpose of this design was for the costume to seem real, in order for a realistic performance. My costumes were designed in order for the audience to have an understanding of the performance, with a focus towards the setting of the play and the characters. In the actual performance I was not able to use my designs as I didn’t have the time or resources to produce them. However I

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