Designing III

This post will make most sense after you have read Designing II.

What I wrote in Designing II was actually a bluff of sorts. You see, I don't think Spring Awakening is a drab, monotone play at all.

The play is seen through the eyes of the children. We know this because the adults (especially the teachers) are caricatures with names like Professor Gutgrinder and Professor Thickstick (maybe he should have been in the History Boys). Besides, the play centres around the children and their perspectives.

These are children at an extremely vivid time of their lives. Discovering new sensations and finding new depth in things they had already taken for granted. Surely that is a world filled with colour?

So although the cut of the costumes will be dictated by the era in which the play is set I think the design (including the lighting) should feature a lot of very intense colour. The girls may be in long skirts but should have coloured ribbons (where the script permits); the boys may be in breeches but should have coloured stockings and so on.

If there is a place for greys, it is in the parents' attire.