Winner of Best Performance Design and Scenography Publication Award, Prague Quadrennial 2019This beautifully illustrated book conveys the centrality of costume to live performance. Finding associations between contemporary practices and historical manifestations, costume is explored in six thematic chapters, examining the transformative ritual of costuming; choruses as reflective of society; the grotesque, transgressive costume; the female sublime as emancipation; costume as sculptural art in motion; and the here-and-now as history.Viewing the material costume as a crucial aspect in the preparation, presentation and reception of live performance, the book brings together costumed performances through history. These range from ancient Greece to modern experimental productions, from medieval theatre to modernist dance, from the 'fashion plays' to contemporary Shakespeare, marking developments in both culture and performance.Revealing the relationship between dress, the body and human existence, and acknowledging a global as well as an Anglo and Eurocentric perspective, this book shows costume's ability to cross both geographical and disciplinary borders. Through it, we come to question the extent to which the material costume actually co-authors the performance itself, speaking of embodied histories, states of being and never-before imagined futures, which come to life in the temporary space of the performance.With a contribution by Melissa Trimingham, University of Kent, UK

Offers an interdisciplinary approach, looking at costume within art, fashion and theatre, structured thematically by issues such as the grotesque and the sublime

PrefaceIntroduction1 The First Costume: Ritual and Reinvention2 Costuming Choruses: Spectacle and the Social Landscape on Stage3 The Grotesque Costume: The Comical and Conflicted 'Other' Body4 The Flight off the Pedestal5 Agency and Empathy: Artists Touch the Body6 A Different Performativity: Society, Culture and History on StageNotesSelected BibliographyIndex