Function and Freedom: The Costume Design of “Hamlet 50/50”

“The triumph of simplicity is important,” says Hamlet 50/50 costume designer Elivia Bovenzi Blitz, and her work for this production is certainly a triumph in that regard. For this brand new, world premiere adaptation of Hamlet, Blitz collaborated with director Vanessa Morosco to create a dynamic, familiar-yet-new look to the costumes which conveys the essence of character in a bold and unique fashion. 

Getting Oriented

Blitz’s work for Hamlet 50/50 began in early 2023. Blitz had worked with director Vanessa Morosco in the past, and Morosco’s direction to her design crew for this production was to find their own inspiration for creating the world of the play. For Blitz, that was a good thing – not having a set idea in mind helped her to bring innovative ideas to the table. 

As a designer, Blitz’s typical approach is to use the costumes to show the differences in power in the world of the play, and to convey the character without them having to say a word. As the process evolved, Blitz settled on a blend of her own personal style (favoring mixed patterns for the players) with a cleaner, more Scandinavian aesthetic that was functional and utilitarian.

Blitz’s approach was to create a contemporary look, without being period-specific. The design is relatively modern, but not necessarily of the real world. It’s an elevated style using details that define characters, such as the capes that we see on Gertrude and Claudius: a look that denotes regal and ceremonial authority, but blended with more everyday styles.

Function and Freedom

In a typical Shakespeare production, certain characters have more preferential treatment, based on their importance in the story; Shakespeare doesn’t necessarily call for multiple elaborate looks and changes. In Hamlet 50/50, however, everyone has a more equitable amount.

As Blitz describes it, function and freedom became the two most important characteristics of the 50/50 ethos when applied to the costumes. Part of the conversation was making the backstage elements more equitable – for example, making sure that costumes for women don’t take longer to change than those of the men. Footwear was another important piece of the puzzle; the intent was to create more ways for actors to move around the stage by keeping actors out of footwear, like high heels, that might limit their motion. 

One element of the costume design that reflects the 50/50 ethos is the choice to put all of the characters in gender-neutral trousers, which allow for functionality and freedom of movement without fear of exposure. For Ophelia, the skirt was a careful choice, one that conveyed youth and innocence. But other characters’ costumes have skirts as a layer amongst other layers. Similarly, Claudius’s cape was originally designed to be shorter, but in the development process, it became more of an Elizabethan-inspired style which lives over one shoulder. “I didn’t want him to look like a magician!” Blitz laughs. 

The 50/50 production ethos extended into the build of the costumes as well. For Hamlet 50/50, the idea was to give the shop an opportunity to build more things and use more of their skills and talents in a better way, instead of just altering store-bought clothing. Costume builds were assigned in a different manner; Blitz’s list of dream builds seemed impossible at first, but to her surprise, the shop didn’t flinch at the ask, and actually even surpassed it. 

“As a costume designer, you have to be so multifaceted,” Blitz notes. “You have to be able to perceive actors’ individual needs, read body language, and be very intuitive and diplomatic. No one’s on the operating table – it is not life or death. We have high standards for our work, but we want to execute it as simply and easily as possible.”


Learn more about Hamlet 50/50 at shakespeare.nd.edu. Performances run Aug. 15-27, 2023 at the University of Notre Dame – don’t miss it!

Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival Rescheduled to 2021

Dear Friends,

I write with less-than-pleasant news, though in the interest of public health, by now hardly unexpected: we will postpone the 2020 season of the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. We will still produce “The Two Noble Kinsmen” (July 18-August 23, 2021) and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (August 17-29, 2021). Scotty Arnold and Lavina Jadhwani will still direct.

We will not merely go dark and disappear. The Shakespeare family will adjust our 20th Anniversary Season celebration by enlisting NDSF artists, staff, and volunteers to create online content in three main categories: Education, Training, and Performance.

Classes or workshops we are considering include Shakespeare and Musical Theatre, Acting Shakespeare, Costume Design, Resume Review, and Intimacy Direction. Look too for readings, special adaptations of scenes, and even new live concerts of NDSF music from recent productions.

There will be no charge to participate or view any of these classes or offerings, and we’ll be sure to include how long they will be available. The full schedule will be published May 15.

For those of you who hold tickets to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” you may reschedule with us to 2021, receive a refund, or hold as a credit with the ticketing office. Reach them from 12-6pm EDT., at 574-631-2800 or by email at performingarts@nd.edu. If you leave a voicemail, we will return your call within 24 hours.

Patrons may also be interested in the Paul Rathburn fund, which helps compensate artists who’ve already invested time and effort in the 2020 season.

We believe fervently in the power of theatre to help us see ourselves — and the world — anew. Until we can share these offerings together in the same room, we will look forward to seeing you on our screens.

On behalf of the entire Shakespeare team, our very best wishes to you each and all,
– Grant Mudge, Ryan Producing Artistic Director, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival

The Journey Begins

 

by Wela Mbusi

An epic journey is underway for five actors creating a magical piece of theatre from scratch; using nothing but our skills, imagination, and the love of theatre. Did I also mention without the all seeing eye of a director?

AHHHHHHH!!!

The first two weeks of rehearsals have been about shelling out the play for its meaning, not only for clarity of storytelling, but for us to really grasp such a complex and rich play as Measure for Measure. After the initial shock of being left alone in the room with nothing but the text and our collective training, we managed to slowly, but surely, decipher the scenes one unit at a time. It has been a tremendous learning curve for all of us in the company so far as we’re coming to terms with different ways of working. On top of that, there’s the added responsibility of being all of the other figureheads responsible for the creation of a piece of theatre. However, not having the constant objective eye of a director, it has also meant enjoying the freedom of playing with the text in many ways that a ‘normal’ rehearsal wouldn’t allow us to. We’ve been paraphrasing our lines together and that has helped us not only understand our own lines but the other actors as well.

The breadth and depth of understanding that the process has given us has and hopefully will continue to enrich the play. Foursquare seems to be a regular pre-rehearsal pressure reliever and we are constantly enthused by the epic journey that we’re about to take in the States.

Blizzards, blobs, and beer | Ursinus welcomes AFTLS

And so we reach our final week, heading for Collegeville, Pennsylvania and Ursinus College. The college, pronounced Yer-sigh’-nus, was founded in 1869 and is located 30 miles from Philadelphia. It’s the first time we have even got near to a coast – unless you count Lake Michigan, which does indeed look like an ocean. It’s a bit of a shock, this two-flight journey, as we go from 25 degrees Celsius to -4 (77 to 25F). The frisbee will not be coming out again. Actually we get here just in time; by Monday evening Winter Storm Stella has arrived, bringing with it 18 inches of snow. We were warned about this and there was a quick panic-buy trip to the supermarket when we arrived. Beer, cereal, crisps, all those essentials, you understand…

It also means I’m back in electric shock land. I’m not quite sure why, but Will and I seem to be more susceptible to the shocks, in colder weather, from light switches, from door handles, from each other sometimes. A couple of days ago Jas looked accusingly at me after I had made her jump, as if I was suddenly Marvel’s new creation of Electric Shock Man and doing it just for my own amusement. I’m getting scared to turn the light off at bedtime…

The Kaleidoscope, home of Ursinus College’s departments of Theater and Dance.

Tuesday saw a late start because of the snow, and Sarah and I had to dig the car out of the hotel car park to make it to the first class. We were asked to go in a directors’ class and do a couple of mock auditions for them. So Sarah went in as Nervous-Auditioner, stumbling and drying [click HERE to learn all about “drying”] her way through a speech, and I followed that with Mr. Know-It-All, who refused to redo his speech when asked to try it more melodramatically. “You don’t understand,” I spat back, “I’ve just played this part at the Royal Shakespeare Company!” Thankfully, Sarah and I got a chance to go back in (this time as Ms. Couldn’t-Care-Less and Mr. Couldn’t-Care-More) and make them realize that we weren’t really like that. Honest.

Meanwhile, on Friday, after we had done our first show the previous evening, Will went in to do his class and was promptly asked four times, by different people, to give a rendition of one of our songs in the round, “Rose, Rose, Rose, Red” – I think, having agreed to sing it the first time, it was hard to get out of it after that. Arise Jukebox Willy. Interesting how popular the use of song in the show has been over here.

As for outings this week, the weather put paid to the first half of the week, and I’m afraid none of us made it to the Liberty Bell – the closest I got, in fact, was a full-size replica back in Houston. Interesting that it and the original were both made in London. Sarah and Waggy (her husband, who came out to join us this week, along with Jas’ boyfriend Kieran) did get to Philadelphia on Friday and visited such oddities as the Mütter Museum (shown on the right), a collection of medical artefacts and brains and colons, apparently. I think I might have been even more scared to turn the light off after that…

I did make it as far as Phoenixville, a small town nearby, which has a peaceful charm about it, a few streets of Victorian wooden-slatted houses made all the more picturesque by the snow and the clear blue skies. I stopped to help a man in a very little car get out of a very lot of snow and just enjoyed the chance to wander and take in the numerous iconic yellow school buses dotted about the place, all ready to chug into action. It was less peaceful downtown, where Molly Maguire’s was already doing a roaring trade at 3pm on St. Patrick’s Day. I squeezed my way in past the kilts, the bagpipes, the fiddlers and the sea of green that covered all three floors, and sipped a little Guinness. One has to fit in, don’t you know…

One oddity about Phoenixville: it has a cinema there, the Colonial, where a famous scene from The Blob, a horror B-movie starring Steve McQueen, took place. Apparently in June they hold a BlobFest every year, where they recreate that scene. Look, I’ve told you, I’m scared enough about turning the light out as it is…

There’s been a bit of reminiscing in the hotel bar this week. The line dancing, the snow, Mission Control, Indian Forest Mountain, the Hancock Tower, skimming stones on Lake Michigan; all in all we feel pretty lucky. Not only that, but I it’s been a rewarding challenge, both in the classrooms and out. We seem to be in a time, on both sides of the Atlantic, of Arts funding cuts and pushing the money into more quantifiable, more headline-grabbing areas. All I would say is that I know, by seeing it on students’ faces and from feedback from them and their professors, that we have made a difference here – for some of them, a tangible and long-lasting difference. That is the joy of this job, and long may it continue. I know, by seeing it on students’ faces and from feedback from them and their professors, that we have made a difference here – for some of them, a tangible and long-lasting difference. That is the joy of this job, and long may it continue.

So tomorrow the adventure comes to an end. Well, sort of; we will be doing two performances of the show in London on April 2nd (5pm) and April 3rd (7.30pm), so please do come to the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone if you can. We’d love to see you.

And now it really is time to turn the light off. Thank you America. Good night and good luck.

— Roger May (March 19, 2017)

Shakespeare at Notre Dame to host First Folio in 2016

First Folio Title Page

The title page of Shakespeare’s First Folio published in 1623 and coming to Notre Dame in January 2016.

One of the world’s rarest and most treasured books, the First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays. It will be displayed in the Hesburgh Libraries at Notre Dame January 4 through January 29 during a nationwide traveling exhibition entitled “First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare,” sponsored by the Folger Shakespeare Library in partnership with the Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Library Association and hosted by Shakespeare at Notre Dame.

The exhibition, announced by the Folger Shakespeare Library on Thursday (April 23), Shakespeare’s 451st birthday, is one of numerous events planned worldwide for 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

“We are honored to partner with the Hesburgh Library’s Rare Books Collection and the Folger Shakespeare Library in serving as the sole Indiana venue for the First Folio exhibition,” said Scott Jackson, executive director of Shakespeare at Notre Dame. “Our mission is to directly engage our audiences with the works of Shakespeare both on the page and on the stage. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to host the First Folio in a venue as iconic as Notre Dame’s Hesburgh Library will provide the wider Michiana community with an entirely new way to experience one of the world’s greatest dramatists.”

When it was published in 1623, the First Folio could be purchased for 20 shillings, roughly $200 today. Since then it has become one of the most valuable printed books in the world; a First Folio sold for $6.2 million in 2001 at Christie’s and another one for $5.2 million in 2006 in London.

ToBe_FirstFolio_smallIn the Notre Dame exhibition of the First Folio, the book’s pages will be opened to the most familiar of all Shakespearean lines; “To be or not to be” from Hamlet’s soliloquy. The exhibition will include digital and interactive features on Shakespeare’s life, times and work, and several public events presented by Shakespeare at Notre Dame.