More thoughts.. Costumes :)

So… I said I'd post thoughts on costumes and sound at a later date. Hopefully all these thoughts will come in handy when I get down to compiling my IPP.

We'll see.

So.. costumes. 

The costumes will be relatively simplistic, going with the goal of highlighting the fact that the performance - particularly the subject of the performance - has it's roots buried in reality. An ugly, but very real, reality. 

Ok, so let's take this character by character:

* The mother.

From what I can understand, the mother is an embodiment of the traditional Indian mother. She is not stuck in the middle ages, yet her beliefs and life center around her family, she is a stay-at-home mother who had great hopes for her daughter to have a better future than her own. She sticks to tradition, but is not rejecting modern ways. Therefore, she is dressed in a _____ (the female equivalent of a kurtah) ___, of all white. This sort of outfit is something still very much worn today by Indian women, even in large cities such as Bangalore (some of our teachers even come dressed so) - the present day clothing helps to situate the performance in the present, and the relevance of the message to today. While Indian women usually dress in bright, colorful combinations, the white is the color of mourning. For her, the daughter she raised died the day that she was raped - and she mourns her loss. 

Her hair is plaited back traditionally, but she does not have and flowers coiled into it to decorate herself - she has nothing to celebrate.

She wears only a couple gold bracelets and earrings to mark her wealth and status, but not everything she owns and not her most fancy jewelry.

In her area of the stage, the only things around her is a small three-legged stool, and a couple vases of flowers. The simple, wooden, three-legged stool is a visual representation of her attachment to the home and her humble origins, as well as housework and the kitchen. The flowers in vases around her, however, are gifts. Traditionally, after a death flowers are not brought to the funeral but sent to the family's home. This is to highlight the social death the victim suffered due to being raped as well. 

The flowers are not obnoxiously bright to underline once again the somber tone of the performance, and the vases are white - both to better reflect the stage lights and to merge with the white clothing theme of mourning. 

* The boyfriend.

The boyfriend is also Indian, but a more modern young man who is not so grounded in tradition as the mother. Therefore, he is dressed as many of the young men of the modern era - in jeans. Dark ones, to reflect his mood - and his Indian roots shine through the white hoodie as he too mourns. 
This combination of colors has two reasons: he is not completely dressed in white, because unlike the mother he is more grounded in reality and mourns not the loss of the woman's life, for she still lives, but rather the loss of the relationship they shared which he fears has been damaged beyond repair.
He wears no jewelry, holds no accessories, and has no props to play with. He is presented simply as a man - any man - who truly cares, without material incentives. He is presented as a tattered soul, hiding his hurt as he shields his face with the hoodie.

* The politician.

The politician happens to be played by a female actress. While this is, in my opinion, a positive development for it will sooth some of the incredibly machoistic and callus quotes that are being repeated to the audience as it's coming from a female, and hence it's taken as almost a given that we do not actually believe any of what is being repeated, and are merely citing examples. No woman in their right mind would be in agreement with many of those quotes.

The politician is very neutral. A black suit, white shirt. The standard penguin uniform that most workers and politicians live in throughout their career. It's the universal dress code, and hence is useful when embodying multiple different politicians through their words. The shirt is white for tradition, and also (in keeping with the cultural identification of the color white as relating to mourning) a subtle message that we are mourning the politicians callousness and words - a shirt covers the heart, after all. 
India is generally full of life and color - the black of the suit highlights a clear ignorance towards / disdain for the general people the politicians are supposed to represent.

The politician will stand by a podium, highlighting that the statements they made are rarely spur-of the moment expressions that ought to be glossed over as they were not completely thought through. It underlines the formality of the event, and all the preparation that goes into them. There will also hopefully be a microphone - pushing forward the extent to which their words are broadcasted and how far their voice/ statements can really carry - particularly in comparison to the plebeans, even those directly affected by the event. 

The politician remains standing, stiff, as though untouchable by emotions. 
Her hair is pulled back tightly, matching the professionalism of her persona.

* The objective observer - stranger. 

The stranger is a foreigner. A regular woman who's recently moved to India, and is confronted with a reality she is really ready to face. She wears western every day clothing, with appropriate coverage for her new environment. Jeans, a pale-blue t-shirt, and a loose black sweater. Her hair is tied in a careless knot, and she wears only simple chain pendant necklace.

The jeans are once again a reflection to the modern era - one that the audience will easily be able to identify with. The fact that both her and the boyfriend are both dressed in jeans draws a parallel between their ages, and helps to highlight the differences and similarities between their reactions and personal levels of involvement. 

The pale blue t-shirt is worn to underline that the stranger is also mourning the girl's fate, but is not vested enough personally to wear white. This supports the effort to demonstrate to the audience just how widely spread the affects of a single incident are. The black sweater shows the lack of personal involvement and the detachment of a stranger - no matter how much their hearts may mourn the girls fate (light-blue shirt), strangers are protected to a certain level by a shell - a layer of distance from the event - a black sweater.

The single necklace reflects the young woman's foreign origins as it is clearly unlike the style of any of the heavier, Indian jewelry.  

Her hair is pulled back in a careless knot showing that she's just an average Jo, and this is just a day like any other to her, with no particular event or reason to dress up. 

She is seated on a desk, no only to allow each of the characters to be on a different level, but also to suggest that she is in an environment she is clearly comfortable in. One only sits on tables when one is at ease. She also has several props - a couple of local papers (showing she's living in India), and an Economist or two - showing that she's getting news from a global perspective as well … demonstrating just how far reaching the repercussions are. 

All the characters are barefoot, if for no other reason than the practical one - less noise is made moving around if the actors on stage are barefoot. 


As for the victim... I need to think a little more.