Stinton, C., Jetzer, C., McGarrigle, C., Muir, H., 2024.

Liturgie

Liturgie, is a specific area of research that sits within a wider construct. My broader research interests set out to explore how costumes can be used as a vehicle or tool to influence, manipulate, control, dictate and create other elements of theatre design such as lighting, set, sound and choreography either within a performance or as part of the devising process. I see this research taking place over a number of years and will begin by conducting a set of creative experiments within the context of "performance as a laboratory". During these experiments, I will collect and compile observations that explore the potential that costume has to act as a catalyst to the development of each discipline separately.

My research into the influence of costume on other stage components has begun with the discipline of choreography. I am currently working with a small company, Spectre Ensemble whose intention is to stage the Ballet Russes' un-staged production Liturgie. As the costume designer on this production I am working with the pre-existing designs by Natalia Goncharova. Many of the designs for the costumes depict large awkward structures that pose a challenge for movement and dance. There are few notes on the how the costumes should be made or what materials should be used and even fewer on the intention towards the choreography. This opens up an opportunity for a creative approach to design interpretations. The lack of rigid guidelines has enabled cross fertilisation of ideas between the designer and choreographer where both costumes and choreography are being simultaneous developed without a hierarchy.