The Costuming for Fall Production of King Lear
By Lily Jensen ‘28
Everyone wears some kind of costume. The clothing we choose tells a story of who we are. In any effective stage production, costume serves the same purpose, but on an amplified scale. Audience members know that what we are seeing isn’t necessarily real, but we suspend reality to immerse ourselves in the world before us. This suspension is achieved in part by the work of costume designers. The actors help us believe the emotional truths of the performance, but costume designers convince us of the visual and physical ones.
Summer Jack is the master artist behind this act of convincing for the theatre productions at Middlebury. Jack is a professor in the Theatre department and leads costume design for the majority of main stage shows, including the Fall 2024 production of King Lear. She has an undergraduate degree in costume design from Arizona State and a graduate degree from the Yale School of Drama.
She immediately fell in love with costuming as an opportunity to participate in the theatrical world without being on stage. Jack has been in the industry for over 20 years, previously designing in New York City for operatic and theatrical performances. Jack entered the educational realm during the COVID-19 pandemic when all in-person performing arts were shut down. She started with mentoring and describes her work at Middlebury as a “natural step” of her passion for costumes. She teaches costuming classes, some with a historical lens and others with a production lens. This fall, Jack taught Production Studio, a course where students help with all aspects of production.
A basic understanding of the story is essential to understand the costuming process for Shakespeare’s King Lear. At the outset of the play, King Lear decides to divide his land between his daughters and resign from power. To determine the division, he tests the three daughters, challenging them to each proclaim how much they love him. The eldest daughters win and receive power, land, and money in return. Following the transaction, both sisters reject their father. He retreats from civil society to the woods in anguish. The youngest daughter, who simply could not express how much she loved her father, was sent away to marry in France. She returns home with more power and saves her father’s Kingdom from her selfish sisters.
Designing a classic Shakespearean play presents unique challenges. Jack has to make a wide variety of costumes because “Shakespeare creates great contrast of characters with both high and low stature.” The characters in Shakespeare do not resemble the Middlebury student actors, so the actors need “more makeup effects” or to “wear a beard.” Because of the many challenging builds, intense quick changes, and large cast of characters, the Theater department is only focusing on King Lear this year, even though they typically have two main stage productions per semester.
Despite these challenges, Shakespeare allows for creativity and extravagance from the designer’s perspective. Jack explains that there are benefits to these well-known period plays because everyone is familiar with the story, so “you can really kind of get away with more design than if it were a new play.” Because of their dramatic and sometimes magical plots, there is more space for artistic risks. However, Jack emphasizes that some elements of the plot must stay the same: “It does have to fit the script.” One example of Jack balancing creativity while still telling an accurate story is through the costuming of the Duke of Burgundy, who is motivated by superficial values like power and money. Jack is dressing him in a fun and flamboyant red floral look that is meant to display this.
These provocative looks don’t come together instantly; they demand a laborious and thorough production process before the audience sees them on stage. This begins with research. Jack says she often “looks at what people are actually wearing” and sometimes, “what they’re wearing is really inspirational for a particular piece.” Jack also collects “research pictures” from magazines and the internet to put together mood boards for each costume. After the preliminary research, the designer and the director meet to discuss the vision for the production at large. This year, they “really wanted it to feel kind of fashion-forward,” drawing inspiration from the Met Gala and red-carpet gowns, maintaining the same elevation of royalty with a modern twist.
The director and designer also discussed the role of women in the play. Jack explains, “It’s just really about how women fit into society, and how we’re always kind of expected to be on display.” Next, Jack sketches potential costumes. Because of King Lear’s complex characters, most of them have multiple costumes. Jack explains, “We wanted [the sisters] to start in these soft and pretty Met Gala gowns, and then go into these much more powerful outfits when they get their power and land.” After developing these looks, Jack looks to source the costumes, determining whether or not they can be bought or reused from a previous production. The lack of stores in Vermont makes this a difficult process. Jack still refers to this element as “fun problem solving,” even though “every day there’s a different problem.”
All of this creativity is not possible without the Middlebury Costume Shop. A whole team contributes to bringing the creative vision to life. A lot of the sewing is done by students involved in the Costume Shop’s work-study program. Associate Costume Director Katie Knauber works with hair and makeup and teaches students how to facilitate quick changes. She says, “During the show, it’s a lot of making sure that you know where each actor is going to be when, and then making sure you know where their clothes are going to be.” It takes work from many, each with their own expertise, to costume King Lear.
Director Robin Foster Cole explains, “You’ll go see [the play] and you’ll realize that some of these dresses that we’re spending a ton of time on are only on stage for five minutes.” But Jack argues that these five minutes are essential because “when a character walks on stage, you have about 30 seconds before they actually open their mouth to let you know exactly who they are.”
Costume design is a distinguished art form. Jack comments on the banality of certain costumes because costuming is about “making sure they look right for the script, and they look right for the emotional state they’re supposed to be in.” She also says that costuming is not subject to the same “arbitrary fashion rules” or the ever-changing “fashion cycle.” Costuming is the art of crafting a narrative for the audience, and Jack compares designing King Lear to solving a puzzle. Crafting a look for a character “helps advance the story a whole lot faster,” because it allows the audience to have an “I know who that is” moment before the dialogue begins. These moments are only made possible through problem-solving behind the scenes.
Once the curtain comes up, this storytelling impacts the audience. Even though Shakespeare is typically associated with elitist culture today, it was initially directed to an audience of all socio-economic statuses. When a Shakespearean story comes to life on stage, transcending the confusing and difficult text, it becomes accessible to a wider audience. The accessibility of a theatrical story is partially determined by the work of the actors, but it can also be attributed to the spectacle of the performance: the sets, lights, and costumes. Costumes are more than the razzle-dazzle quality that they bring to a show, they are integral to making an impact on the audience.