East of Berlin and The Russian Play has been one of my favorite productions to design. This is the first time these two one-act plays, written by Hannah Moscovitch, have been produced together on the same bill. When Ronan Marra (director) gave me the scripts I was immediately taken with the stories' similarities. The narrators played nearly identical story-telling roles, the three characters in both plays had complementary characteristics, and the two plays had many overlapping themes.
Since these two plays were not originally written to share billing, I wanted to use my costume design to unite the two, create visual ties between the characters and themes of the plays, and make a cohesive production.
East of Berlin is set in Paraguay and then Germany, also moving in time from the 1960s to 1970s. The Russian Play takes place in 1920's Russia. Using these constraints of time and place, I designed costumes for each one-act that would "mirror" the corresponding characters in the other. This is much easier to explain visually:
East of Berlin and The Russian Play have been extended at Signal Ensemble Theatre, and now close on December 18th.
...more production photos to come!
Since these two plays were not originally written to share billing, I wanted to use my costume design to unite the two, create visual ties between the characters and themes of the plays, and make a cohesive production.
East of Berlin is set in Paraguay and then Germany, also moving in time from the 1960s to 1970s. The Russian Play takes place in 1920's Russia. Using these constraints of time and place, I designed costumes for each one-act that would "mirror" the corresponding characters in the other. This is much easier to explain visually:
East of Berlin and The Russian Play have been extended at Signal Ensemble Theatre, and now close on December 18th.
...more production photos to come!
Sarah and Rudi in East of Berlin
Sonya and Piotr in The Russian Play
