The Dramatic Imagination, By Robert Edmond Jones

A character’s costume is much more than the clothes they wear to play a part. These clothes help us venture into the author’s world and help us connect with this new place and believe in its reality. They help us capture so much more than what the character looks like. We are able to see, feel, and experience the characters personality and purpose in the story. In a play or movie, we immediately make our fist connection with a character based on what they are wearing, this is the first step in drawing us in and making us believe in this new world. This first impression gives us the first glimpse at the characters style, background, and social class. All of these things are meant to immediately draw us in.

The past four years, I have breathed, slept, eaten, thought and immersed myself in all thing pertaining to theatre. This is where I discovered to truly work in a team, where I could be without fear of being something I am not, and where I have found peace in the maddening swirl of day to day life, ironic in the fact that theatre is a hectic world. This world is where I have made my best friends and found people I know I can count on and that I insist can depend on me. If I have learned one thing from my experiences in theatre, it is to strive and achieve

The audience is seated, the lights dim, and all of a sudden, through wild anticipation, the music cues as a notification that the show is about to begin. Theater is a creative outlet for the soul to paint a picture towards showcasing a short story. This past weekend, I attended a play at Crabpot Players Theater to observe a parody of one of Shakespeare’s most famous pieces, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a whole the play was fairly decent, but there were a few minor issues that held the piece back. It is officially time to analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Above all, I wouldn’t be where I am today without theatre. Without the chance to perform throughout my life, I would be disconnected from the wide array of communities and histories that’s been imbedded in my daily routine. Unfortunately, it’s speculated that the theatre is a dying art form, because of the expanding popularities of movies (“Is”), but I think that it’ll remain a well renowned part of expressing imagination and interpreting history as years pass; it only takes cooperation with school faculty and young students that go above and beyond to change their

“…Then you realise that theatre is a more personal experience.” (Stephen Atkins, Dante’s Inferno Director) After viewing Zen Zen Zo’s physical theatre reincarnation of the

In the intro to The Dramatic Imagination, John Mason Brown wrote that Robert Jones’ theatre was “an extension of life, not a duplication, a heightening rather than a reproduction” (Jones 1). Of course, we know that plays are about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. However, Jones poses the question of what can designers do to heighten the “extraordinary circumstances” to the audience without interfering the message of the show? The Dramatic Imagination focused on most aspects of artistry in the theatre, including actors and designers. As someone who does not consider myself a designer, but is an actor with a liberal arts education, this was more helpful than only focusing on scenic design. Furthermore, it supported the need for intense collaboration between all theatre artists when working on a show, a highly valued characteristic of mine.

During the 19th century, theater adopted a realistic viewpoint by romanticism but also a rise in modern nationalism to give people a sense of belonging in a community or culture (Carlson 2014: 21). In the 20th century, realism in theater was challenged and plays were now easier to attend due to the improvements of communication and the ability to reach other areas of the world by travel (Carlson 2014: 23-24). Theater is another addition to the world of art that is continuously evolving and adapting to the world and cultures influencing its

For decades people found theatre one of the most enjoyable form of entertainment all across the world. With every play comes a cost. A value which somebody's story is told. Obviously it can be comic drama or despairing,. Each second of these plays are genuinely delightful and exceptional. Where the performing artists show a totally distinctive side of characters to the group of onlookers where they demonstrate to them something new and pleasurable. And behind the theatre and its plays is one person who keeps it all in check and that is the director. The director is like the heart of a person. You don’t see the heart but you know if it’s doing its job correctly

Having knowledge and involvement in both the acting and the technical aspects of theater, I expected the production to deliver a qualitative performance that gave its audience the full experience. This experience is achieved by the elements of theater such as acting, lights, sounds, props, costume and set design

Fashion now is incomparable to the Elizabethan Era. This time period was ruled by Queen Elizabeth I, she became queen in the year 1558 until her death. Clothing wasn't just merely a trivial thing in the days of Elizabethan times. It was taken very seriously by the people for the reason that it controlled social order. In Addition, it provided information about the person wearing them.

Qu1. – Theatre allows one to express emotions, escape from reality and fantasise over desired endings. Theatre re-enacts past events in an over-exaggerated, dramatic form. It is considered living art. Theatre performances require a scriptwriter, sound designer, costume designer, lighting designer, director, scenic designers, actors, technicians, dramaturges, historians and audiences. The performance can be entertaining and/or educational. For example theatrical performances are based on previous events (history), which is both visually pleasing and educational.

“Theatre makes us think about power and the way our society works and it does this with a clear purpose, to make a change.”

Next, actors had to abide by the sumptuary laws even while performing on stage. Therefore the second a performer walked onto the stage the audience could tell their role in the play just by looking at the color of the costume. “The Material and Fabric also had a similar effect,” the audience could tell what class the character was in by the quality of their costume and also it gave important information on that individual’s role (Elizabethan Actors). “Queen Elizabeth I had to give actors special licenses” to wear upper class clothes to fit their character or position (Globe Theatre Costume). When nobility or upper class people would come to see a play they would say it was like a double fashion show. The fabric and color of a person’s garments represented different pieces of information about them and since clothing was part of society and law everyone knew what the color or material meant.

In the Elizabethan times, there were many different types of clothing. The lower class wore much cheaper materials than the Nobles would wear. Many Elizabethans wore things to prove what they could afford like big classy rings to big gowns. They had outfits for many things like funerals, weddings, and every day wear. The Elizabethan clothing styles involved different social classes like lower class, nobles, and upper class.

Many people simply show up to musicals and often take the costumes for granted and concentrate only the performance of the actors. Many people don’t realize the