Costume Design

I have decided to attempt to design costumes for the critically acclaimed Jonathan Larson rock opera, Rent. For the costume design to fit a play properly, one must consider the background of each character that you are trying to design for. For designs to be both expressive and functional, costumers need to consider not only the director’s concept, but also what physical actions the actor will be performing on stage, the psychological nature of the character, as well as the limitations and potential of the actor. Since I’m going to have to design these costumes for unknown actors, or rather design the costumes more for the characters than the actors who play them, I should be able to have more freedom with what the final design should look like. Rent takes place in 1989, therefore the costumes should be mostly contemporary. The four main characters for Rent that I have decided to design for are that of Mark Cohen, Roger Davis, Tom Collins, and Angel Dumott Shunard. The first character, Mark Cohen is a struggling documentary filmmaker and Roger’s roommate. For Mark, I see that he should be subtle and restrained and for his personality his outfit should be equally reserved. For Mark’s costume I imagine plain kaki slacks, red wool knit sweater and a black and white striped scarf. Roger’s character is a once successful, but now, struggling musician who is HIV positive. Being a struggling musician, I see Roger with long hair, torn blue jeans, T-shirt, blue jean jacket and an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder. Tom Collins is a former teacher and part time roommate to Mark and Roger. I imagine Tom being more refined and well dressed, with nice leather shoes, slacks, shirt tie and jacket, and a long winter coat. Angel is a young drag queen, street percussionist with AIDS, and Tom’s love interest. For Angel I see tight nylon stockings, a skirt, and a short pink jacket. These characters are all very unique in personality and their costume design is sure to be as distinct.