Wonderful Life Costumes: Page to Stage, part one!

Some time back at the beginning of the design process, i posted about using pinterest as a design tool in initial communication of visual research in costume conception, for an upcoming production of It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. The play's dramatic conceit is that it presents a "radio play" version of the classic film's story, in which the audience in the theatre functions as the "live studio audience" complete with interaction like Applause-sign responses and so forth. The broadcast is ostensibly happening on Christmas Eve, 1946. Five actors voice all of the roles and the play runs straight through with actual commercial breaks, just like a radio play would have. So, all the characters only have the one costume and very few props and pieces to work with in creating the world of It's a Wonderful Life.

The show, opening at PlayMakers this Saturday night, now exists as an entity in terms of the costumes, and I thought it would be fun to write about how the designs moved from blobs of research images to real costumes worn by actual people.

First, let's take a look at one of the ladies in the cast: Sally Applewhite, played by Maren Searle. ( Read more... )