How do you dress a mouse? Well, if the mouse isn’t a real one, that’s actually not difficult. Personally, I wouldn’t want to try dressing a real one. What is a trickier question is how do you dress a person to look like a mouse?
Tony Walton faces just such a challenge in doing the costume design for the upcoming musical production The Great American Mousical. Fortunately, Tony has imagination and creativity beyond that of most people. He has decades of experience in costume design and set design. (The sets for Mousical will be tricky, too, with the changes in perspective between mouse and people theatre, and between mouse theatre and various locations in New York City.)
I can’t help wondering what he’ll do with the costumes.
Will the mice have ears and tails, or will the audience simply have to imagine they do? If they do, how will that be achieved? When speaking of mice, I almost hate to mention another production that involved animals, but in Cats, the actors were fabulously fantastically feline. I suspect the actors also spent a very long time having their makeup applied prior to every performance. Will Tony go that route?
As you can see from the photos on my post about Stages Theatre Company’s production of Llama Llama Red Pajama, they went a fairly low-tech route in creating their llamas, but one still knew they were llamas!
Masks, or headdresses and facepainting, a la The Lion King on Broadway, are also possibilities.
~~ I hope everyone in the cast and crew of Mousical is safe, and that they are able to get back to work doing what they love to do. ~~
If you were designing costumes for this production, how would you achieve mousehood?
TICKET INFORMATION: All being well, The Great American Mousical will be on stage at the Norma Terris Theatre, Chester, Connecticut, from November 8 to December 2, 2012. Tickets may be purchased by phoning the Box Office, 1-860-873-8668.
THIS IS THE LAST POST BEFORE THE GIVEAWAY: As with all the Wednesday Mousical posts this month, any comment on this post will be entered into a random draw to be held November 7th for one of three copies of Julie’s and Emma’s middle grade novel The Great American Mousical. (Full disclosure: these are remaindered copies, and have a small mark on the lower edge of the pages, which doesn’t interfere with readability at all. They are hardcover copies.)
I have no clue, but I love watching how these artists bring these productions to life! Happy Halloween.
Good honest answer, Stacy! Happy day after Halloween to you! How’s your young iguana-boy today?
I loved how they looked in Cats too. I’d love to see that musical again. I guess you can get headbands with ears on that would be good. happy Halloween, Beth!
Thanks, Catherine, and happy day after Halloween! (I’m late with my responses…)
Considering my nickname, I have no idea how to achieve that, but I’m sure the great Tony Walton will pull it off wonderfully.
Wonder if they’d go the Honk! route. Honk! is a musical based on the Ugly Duckling, but in all of the productions that I know of, the actors look very human, but wear colours and clothes that suggest what animal they are- for example the ducklings often wear yellow raincoats and caps, and orange+yellow striped long stockings, the frogs wear green costumes and goggles, etc.
Oh, that’s an interesting thought, Mouse! The Honk! thought. And I agree with you wholeheartedly about Tony. He knows his stuff.
I think I might go the CATS route, but it is great fun to speculate, Beth.
It’s definitely fun to speculate. Time will tell! Thanks, Joanna.
I would put on hats and makeup. I really want to win this book! I always like the costumes in professional plays, musicals, and operas! When we saw a musical of Beauty and the Beast, I really liked how it was put together – costumes, settings, voices, and props!
Hats and makeup would work for me, Erik! We’ll see if you’re right. Fingers crossed that you win a copy of the book!
Hmmm….. I think the ears and tails would be critical, but I’d probably go for more than just the suggestion of mouse-ness. I’m with Joanna – I think I’d go the whole nine yards 🙂
We’ll have to see if Tony agreed with your Nine Yards of Mouseness… 😉
I seem to have a bit of creativity with writing but not so much with the crafty design stuff lol! Facepaint would be great, with a little bit of costume enhancements to hint at their “mousey” nature.
We each have our own unique talents, and you have MORE than a bit of creativity with writing, Angela! We’ll see who’s closest to Tony’s interpretation…