Dressing the actors

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 20

Dressing the actors

’ Forty-five costumes in six weeks was the task facing a freelance designer, John Verryt, when he was appointed designer for the Court Theatre’s production of “The Threepenny Opera.” I Mr Verryt had the advantage that he had designed f&r the play before at Theatre Corporate in Auckland where he was a designer for four years. * However, he says that his costumes for the Christchurch production are quite different to those he designed for the Auckland' sjjow.

-Mr Verryt got the job as designer for the Court’s production through a co-opera-tjve of five designers who formed a group called Theatrics.

I The group offers to design the set and costumes for dny show. -- When it was formed three ifonths ago Theatrics sent out publicity material to 3)-ts groups and theatres introducing ' its members. That introduction led to the designer’s job on “The threepenny Opera” being offered to Mr Verryt. ’ He has worked as a freelance designer since January. Work is not easy

to find, he says, but he has worked on three productions this year. Two were independent productions staged oy the Actors Company. Although he knew freelancing would be difficult, Mr Verryt wanted the challenge of working in different theatres. “I wanted a change of space. Working at Theatre Corporate was rather restricting as far as the space I had to work with. It’s about five metres square with walls all around,” he said. John Verryt joined Theatre Corporate from a background in graphics. He started as a trainee designer and moved up to designing both costumes and

set for the theatre’s productions. He prefers to do both to achieve a continuity for the production. For “The Threepenny Opera” he is designing costumes only. The Court’s regular set designer, Tony Geddes, has designed the set.

Asked about his training, the young designer shrugged his shoulders. “Just what I picked up from being around the theatre. I believe that designers are bom, not

made. It’s something that you have.” The first step to designing costumes for a production is to look at the set, Mr Verryt says. “It is important to have a link between the set and the costumes. It gives a balance to the whole production.” There are also the technical aspects of costumes complementing the set “There’s no point in my putting a character in a tall hat and sending him into Tony’s set if his hat is too tall to let him walk under part of the two-level set,” Mr Verryt said. Meeting the actor who will portray a character is essential to designing a costume.

“There is no point in designing a long, tall costume for someone who is short and fat,” Mr Verryt said. “The Threepenny Opera” has given the designer plenty of scope with costumes. “There are some pretty

extreme characters in the show,” Mr Verryt said. The characters fall into three groups: the beggars, the gang and the whores. For the latter the Court has

borrowed a range of underwear from the Repertory Theatre. To design a costume Mr Verryt begins on the drawing board, drawing up an idea of what a character should look like. From there he adapts that idea to suit the “I am a designer but I prefer to work with a cutter. Some designers cut out their own costumes,” Mr Verryt said. For “The Threepenny Opera” the Court has also employed a freelance cutter, Geraldine Murray. The actual making of the costumes has been done by Kate Wells and Helen Morrish. After the Court Theatre

production, which opens on Saturday evening, Mr Verryt will work on the graphics of a film for schools. The film made by the Family Planning Association is about contraception. His intention is to keep working in theatre.

“I have not yet found the ideal theatre space in which to design,” he said, “but I would like to continue working in theatre in New Zealand.”