Synopses & Reviews
Focussing on costume in performance, this reader brings together key texts, case studies and interviews. Exploring costume's role and function in a variety of theoretical, historical, conceptual and practical contexts, this exciting volume also reflects on the broader relationship between costume and visual culture throughout.
Review
"At last a book on costume that truly answers the questions practitioners and scholars ask themselves on a daily basis. Monks and Maclaurin combine their intellectual and practical skills in a book which must surely rank as the most significant book on theatrical costume this decade." - Scott Anderson, Queen Margaret University, UK
"An important text to engage students in theoretical debate." - Anne Curry, Nottingham Trent University, UK
About the Author
Ali Maclaurin is a freelance designer and lecturer. She has practiced for over twenty years, particularly in physical theatre and young people's work, with companies such as Scottish Opera and Shadow Syndicate, and she set up and led the degree in Costume Design and Construction for Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK.
Aoife Monks is Reader in Theatre Studies, Queen Mary University of London, UK. She is the author of The Actor in Costume and the co-editor of Contemporary Theatre Review.
Table of Contents
Introduction - Aoife Monks
1. Writing About Costume; Ali Maclaurin
Interview one: Jenny Tirimani
Interview two: Mark Thompson
2. The Stage Picture; Ali Maclaurin
Interview three: Simon Annand
Interview four: Alex Rigg
3. Virtuosity, Craft and Technique in the Work of Costume; Aoife Monks
Interview five: Lois Weaver
Interview six: Lez Brotherstone
4. Playing the Body: Costume, Stereotypes and Modernity in Performance; Aoife Monks
Interview seven: Tina Bicat
Interview eight: The salon project
5. Artists and the 'scenic body'; Ali Maclaurin
Bibliography
Index