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Costumes are key in YSU’s ‘Tartuffe’
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
“Tartuffe” is a tough one for a costume creator.
The classic comic play by Moliere is set in the late 1600s in the home of a French nobleman – a time and place when high fashion was as ornate and ostentatious as it gets. The clothing is heavily embellished with embroidery, bows and accoutrements.
Fortunately, the costume shop at Youngstown State University Theater embraced the challenge. A group of staff and students, led by Katherine Garlick, assistant professor of costume design, and Rebel Mickelson, costume shop supervisor, created 12 costumes that do not compromise in staying true to the period.
“Tartuffe” opens Friday in Spotlight Theater, which is in Bliss Hall, on the YSU campus, and runs for two consecutive weekends.
The costume shop in Bliss Hall was a beehive of activity last week as Garlick, Mickelson and students put the finishing touches on costumes, walking canes, shoes and wigs. On the wall was a series of drawings that Garlick made to show what each costume was to look like.
Although she has done costuming for period pieces before, this is the first time Garlick has worked on “Tartuffe.” Planning actually started months ago.
“We began design meetings for ‘Tartuffe’ last fall,” she said. “I bought the fabric over Christmas break.”
Garlick did her shopping at specialty stores in Cleveland and Maryland, where she was able to find the fabric, buttons and other items that she needed while staying within her budget.
“The costume for Elmire (the lady of the house) alone used 15 yards of fabric and seven different fabrics,” she said.
Brooke Nobbs plays the role of Elmire, Christopher Hager plays her insufferable husband, Orgon, and Patrick Hobby plays the rascal Tartuffe. Professor Matthew Mazurosky is the director.
To create her costume designs, Garlick studied portraits and fashion plates and combined them with her own knowledge. A few items of clothing of 17th-century France are still in existence, which she also used for reference.
The result is costumes that are historically accurate – although Garlick did take a liberty or two for theatrical effect. One example is her use of a frontage, which is a women’s headpiece that consists of a series of floppy purple loops that rise upward. “‘Tartuffe’ is set in roughly 1664, but the frontage is a 1690 fashion,” she said. “It’s not historically accurate, but it’s funny. They bob up and down when she talks. I was going for a good gag.”
Garlick had to start from scratch in making half of the costumes. For the remainder, she was able to alter and customize existing pieces from YSU Theater’s extensive costume shop.
Not only do some of the clothes of the era look odd to a modern eye, but they also could be problematic for the person wearing them.
“The actors have been rehearsing in their [stage] shoes since Jan. 21,” said Garlick. “They guys are in high heels and wigs, and the girls are in corsets and ‘bum rolls’ [which create an exaggerated backside]. They have to get used to moving in them.”
The plot of the play centers around Tartuffe, an overly pious fraud who ingratiates himself into Orgon’s household. Orgon upholds his guest as a beacon of virtue, while his wife and daughter can see through him. The play satirizes social pretentiousness and outright hypocrisy, and has been a staple of classic theater for centuries – although usually with far less attention to detail when it comes to the costumes.
Hair and makeup design for YSU’s production is being done by Erica Hess, senior theater major.
Rounding out the cast are Cameron Beebe, Benjamin Bogen, Quincy Carrier, Stefon Funderburke, Claudia Gage, Kathryn Jerome, Sam Mentzer, Lindsey Pratt and John Rusk.