ABSTRACT

Costume is the element of the theatre that integrates the performer into the scenography; it constitutes the margin between the performer's body and all the other material factors that make up the performance. In the theatre, costumes perform many functions: they establish facts about the character, participate in and communicate the overall production scheme, they must function well no matter what the actors do while wearing them, and they provide visual appeal, calibrated to interest the viewer. Costume is one of the earliest scenographic elements – it could even constitute the entire mise-en-scene. For example, a performer in costume can transform an ordinary public space into a performance space simply by entering it, even before beginning to "perform". That is, costume functions as portable scenography, the mise-en-scene inextricable from the body of the performer herself.