Cabaret Concept
Taken from: Carla Orosz’ Set and Costume vision for Greystone Theatre’s student production of Cabaret in the department of Drama at the University of Saskatchewan.
The play of Cabaret is going to be told by the ‘cabaret’. This means that the storyteller is not only the Emcee but also all of the people connected to the Cabaret and the environment. The space of the Emrys Jones theatre needs to feel intimate, dark, and hidden from the public eye. This is to be a place where people feel free to be who they wish and no that no one is judging them.
The play will be set in Berlin in 1939 just on the brink of WWII. By the end of the play the Nazi regime has taken over and we see all involved in this free-living lifestyle being sent off into the unknown. You can decide that unknown for yourself but for me it is them being sent off to the concentration camps.
It is really important that the environment created here also sets us up for what we see in the costumes. I want to stay true to the period in the cut and silhouette. The fabrics for the KitKat club will be very dirty and broken down as these workers really only had one or two sets of underwear that they would have performed in. I also want to keep the color palette very tight to control the larger look when they are all on stage dancing. The KitKat boys will be a combination of white and black with the KitKat girls various tones of soft pinks, creams and beige. The moments of color and splash will appear in the different numbers. For example in Don’t Tell Mama the color will be in the fans that they use in the dance, which wiII be burgundy.
Throughout the other characters costumes I want to give the audience signals of the characters. For example the character of Heir Schultz I want his suit to be a black or dark blue pinstripe because the stripes will foreshadow the stripes in the concentration camp uniform that he will eventually be wearing but we would never see.
It will be important that in the end the audience has left understanding the horror that has occurred to these beautiful performers. I want them to feel the pain and anguish that everyone would have felt at that time period; to know that your closest friend could be your enemy in the end. I want them to understand that trusting someone took on a whole new meaning after they were struck by the war. I also want for the audience to be reminded that what occurred at this point in history was very joyous and full of creativity until September of 1939 when it was all taken away from them.
Synopsis | Vision Statement | Casting | Costume Design | Set/Scenic Design