SUNDAY JULY 8

I'd like to expound a bit on costumes.

OT takes place in the early part of the 20th Century between 1901 and 1913. (In Act III, Emily's memory of her 12th birthday happens in 1899.) The words and actions of the play are clearly anchored here: doctors make house calls to deliver babies, kids walk to the drug store for strawberry phosphates, a milkman leaves bottles of fresh milk on the porch. Whitney and Rita are working diligently on miming things like stoking wood burning stoves and slicing their own bacon. Peyton and Samuel are practicing carrying their school books with satchels and straps. Mario is figuring out how to parcel out bottles of milk from the back of a horse-drawn wagon.

If you all wore long skirts or knee pants, the audience starts to see a costume drama. Coupled with all of the other vintage things happening onstage, the play starts to acquire an antique feel. This creates a distance between your character and your audience. I want the audience to look at this cast onstage and see THEMSELVES.

One way to make this happen is fast forward your costumes to 2012. So what should you wear? Ask yourself what you would wear today if you were getting ready to go to school. Or preparing breakfast for your kids. Or going to choir practice in the evening after supper. Or working on a dairy farm and driving a wagon. You get the idea. 

Now please don't rush out and go on a shopping spree. Look in your closet. The people in OT do the same kinds of things that we do every day. They don't need fancy or expensive outfits to do it. They simply need to wear clothes.

Nonetheless, I'd like for costumes to sort of fade into the background. If the wedding in Act II reveals a hot pink blouse, a Hawaiian shirt or two, and a bright teal polo, the audience may linger over those bright colors and miss wonderful emotional moments that happen onstage. So, here are some costume guidelines:

• Stick to neutral colors like khaki, navy, linen, denim, white, olive, etc. Avoid highly saturated colors like violet, magenta, lime, etc.
• If your character wears a T-shirt, keep it plain. No slogans or advertising here!
• When faced with choices, solids are better than prints, small prints are better than large prints, and tone on tone designs and plaids are better than loud designs.
• Simple is always better.
• You shouldn't need more than one costume per Act.

Here are some examples of neutral hues.

These are great colors for the show, but 

you're not limited to just these.

Compare the top and 2nd row (good color choices!) 

with the bottom row (poor color choices).

See how the saturated colors say "Look at me!

Look at me RIGHT NOW"

I'd like you to look at costuming your character as part of the process of creating your onstage presence. HFAC normally engages a costume designer for our Mainstage shows, but I just didn't feel that it was necessary for this show. HFAC does have a costume room that will be open to you if you can't find what you need elsewhere. I'll be available to talk to you individually about your costumes in the coming weeks.

Fun fact about OT #4:

Our man, Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder won the second of his three Pulitzer Prizes for Our Town in 1938. His first Pulitzer was for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) and the third was for the drama The Skin Of Our Teeth (1942.) This puts him in rare company. The only other playwrights who have won multiple Pulitzer Prizes are Eugene O'Neill (four), Edward Albee (three), and August Wilson (two).