by Tara Maginnis, Ph.D.
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DRAMA-113 Introduction to Costume Design - Spring  2009

Instructor: Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., home phone 415 479 3157 email:  tara@costumes.org   DON’T USE THE DVC ONE.  Personal website: http://www.costumes.org    Office Hrs:  Jan 20-May 19^th Tues 11am-12noon, May 21 Thursday 10am-11pm.  You can also find me during the other times listed in the attached costume & makeup studio calendar.

Costume Lab Hours: Tuesdays 12noon to 7pm, Thursdays 11am to 7pm, and elsewhere as indicated in the attached calendar.  You will keep a time sheet (card) in the costume studio to keep track of your hours.  Let Tara know when you will be coming in so she can line up things for you to do.

 Web site: Class Web Page: http://theatricalcostumedesign.com    Photos that I take of you in class may be posted there, where you can download or print out the images.  Let me know if you do NOT want photos of you or your work put online.  A copy of this syllabus will also be online there, along with links to additional material.  

Textbook: The Costumer’s Manifesto: a Guide for Artists Who Make Clothes for Imaginary People, by Tara Maginnis.  You can buy this book directly from Tara, for $35 and if it is kept in very good condition, you may sell it back to her at the end of the semester for $30.  

Shows: All students enrolled in a theatre class are expected to either participate in, or view our shows.  If there is a production you are not actively participating in as crew member or cast, you should go see the show.  The Thursday before the Friday opening of each show is a free student preview to which you can and should invite your friends. 

Course Goals: To learn basic processes for design, research and construction for period and modern costume on the stage.  

Student Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, students should have an understanding and appreciation of the steps needed to get costumes designed, made, and fitted on a performer on stage.  They should also acquire basic figure drawing and basic sewing skills, several specialized costume craft skills based on their areas of interest, and be able to make simple costume accessories by adapting existing items like shoes, wigs, and caps.  

Instructional methods (and related grading info):  Each class will begin with a demo where I will show you how to do a technique for a possible project this will typically take 1hr.  After the demonstration occurs, the class will stay after the demo to work on projects till 9:20, and each individual will return during Costume Studio times for an average of 3 hours per week.  During those hours you will do both a series of very specific small projects with hand-holding by me or costume shop staff, plus you will do traditional lab work on the costumes for DVC shows.  While you will be responsible for reading your text book outside of class, and hunting down materials to make some of your projects (lint, old clothes, old nylons, wire coat hangers, baseball cap, fabric, pine cones, etc.) your only outside homework project will be reading and researching costumes for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and  Dracula.

Grading:

Assigned Projects 40% of grade:

·        Dyed Garment

·        Distressed Zombie Outfit

·        Baseball cap headdress or craft felt hat

·        Fairy wings

·        Banyan or Cape as directed.

·        5 color costume renderings for A Midsummer Night’s Dream

·        5 black and white renderings for Dracula

·        Other small craft projects as assigned and completed in the latter part of Monday night class.

Evaluation: Project assignments will be graded based on

25% Completion (Is the project really done, or have important steps been left unfinished?)

25% Neatness, accuracy, clarity (How much have your drawing/sewing/crafting skills improved?)

25% Creativity (Are the choices you have made in design or construction boring and ill thought out or interesting and clever?)

25% Practicality (Would the project actually be usable in a show on stage?)

Lab Participation 40% Be there.  Be willing.  Follow directions.  Just like Technical Theatre Lab.   If you can manage these things, a good grade is assured. Time spent should be roughly 3 hrs a week or 45 hours over all. 

Class participation 20% means providing helpful commentary, ideas, and moral support to your fellow students.  It also means you are there for the demos and the hours after, working cooperatively with your fellow students, while getting more done than just talking.

Course calendar: The Tentative schedule for the demos is as follows (This may change):

Monday January 26: Introduction of syllabus.  Explain about reading plays, what costumers do, general lecture about what purposes costumes serve, how to do research.  Color Swatches project.  For your next meeting, read A Midsummer Night’s Dream and bring research images to class.

Monday February 2:  Costume rendering the way I do it demo.  For your next meeting, bring completed renderings and a white or light colored 100% cotton garment. Read Chapter “Art”.

Monday February 9: Dyeing. Read Chapter “Color”

Monday February 16:  DVC holiday, no class, but I will be open for lab hours from 3:30pm-9pm if you need them.  Read Chapter “Body”.

Monday February 23:  Assembling costumes out of thrift store finds. For next week bring drier lint and read Chapter “Idea”

Monday March 2: Craft felt hats/lint sculpture. Bring old clothes for Zombie costumes next week. 

Monday March 9:  Distressing.  For next week, bring baseball caps and bits of glitzy fabric.  Read chapter “Garbage”

Monday March 16: Baseball Hats into turbans and other fancy headgear.  For next week bring old nylons, and read chapter “Character”.

Monday March 23: Wigs and hair tamales. Read Dracula & copy research images for next class.

Monday March 30: Work on Dracula renderings in class.  For next week, read chapter “Butchery”.

Monday April 6:  Plaster Bandage Masks. 

Monday April 13: Spring Break, no class, but I will be available for Costume Studio lab hours from 1-9pm.

Monday April 20:  Decorating masks. Play with omnigarment. Next week bring fabric for cape or banyan. 

Monday April 27:  Making a “Banyan” robe without a pattern.

Monday May 4:. History of Underwear! Time to work on projects. Next week, read chapter “Glory”.

Monday May 11: Steampunk weaponry & costumes. Next week, read chapter “Soul” and bring in renderings, completed projects, and if possible, photos of other completed projects.

Monday May 18: Final Exam Period: Work on creating portfolio pages of one’s projects. Make YouTube Videos.

Course policies: While it is an obvious point of ethics that you should not turn in work that is not your own for a grade in class, this does not imply that you cannot ask for help on your costume projects both from Tara and Martina, other students, or even your dear old Mom.  This is especially important in doing sewing projects.  Just don’t have that person do any major part of construction (minor ones are allowed) and then claim the work as all yours.  Specify to Tara those parts of a project you had major help on, and you will be graded on the work you could do by yourself, yet still be able to accept help on a small part of a project that requires more expert hands. If you did it all yourself, while someone was telling you what to do while looking over your shoulder, it’s still all yours.  That is how you learn these techniques in this class.

Attendance, Punctuality & Common Politeness:  It is difficult to earn full participation credit (20% of grade, remember?) if you miss a lot of the class presentations, or regularly come in late.  There is no specific number of absences that is a “cutoff” line for full credit, rather it is the amount of time I see your shining faces, the extent to which you do or don’t participate in the demos/discussions, and above all, the frequency of times I have to shout to be heard over your private non-costume-related conversations that influence my judgments on this matter.   I know that major portions of costume class feels exactly like the Drama Dept Monday night “stitch and bitch” meeting, (and this is fine) but there are times, most obviously when I’m trying to address the whole class, that you need to stop your conversations and let me be heard.  Repeated brainlessness in this matter WILL lose you points.