Advanced Topics in Costume Design

Catalog description

Developing and executing a design concept in a variety of the performing arts. THEA 460 Advanced Topics in Costume Design (3 per semester/maximum of 6) (BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. THEA 460 places emphasis on the use of text analysis and extensive historical research to make artistic choices as a costume designer in a production of a classical play, opera, or dance. Plays of this sort are of a size and scope not often found in contemporary material, which places exceptional demands on a designer. This course investigates the manner in which the theatrical imagination can be liberated to fulfill the particular requirements of classic theatre, opera, and dance. The course will require several large-scale projects that reinforce the costume design process in a variety of the performing arts. Each area of work within a project is separately graded. These projects will contain written segment components such as a design statement or character analysis, an oral presentation or explanation of the designer's choices and process, and (where applicable) a demonstration of the fully realized costume renderings. The student is expected to master the process that takes a costume designer from reading a script (or listening to a piece of music) to the creation of a design concept to the visual presentation of renderings from which clothing can be constructed. Particular emphasis is placed on developing the oral presentation skills necessary to communication with the director and other theatre artists.