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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

Costume Design By Erinn Grendahl

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ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD:Concept Statement

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In beginning my research for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, I was interested both in the history surrounding the play's release in 1964 and, due to the fact that this project served as my final elective for my Shakespeare studies minor, I wanted to home in on and specifically highlighting the history surrounding the play’s source material, William Shakespeare's Hamlet, written in 1601. My aim was to celebrate the context of both play’s conceptions while setting the production in the time span of 1600-1650. When approaching this play, I had a few key goals in mind. First, to utilize costumes to aid in accurately establishing the time period, to utilize costumes to differentiate the differences in class as well as social groupings (i.e. R&G vs. Hamlet, The Tragedians vs. The Royal Court, etc.), to highlight the characters as they exist in Hamlet in order to serve the context of both texts, and finally to serve the overall flow and meta theatricality of the play, aiding in contextualization of particularly meta moments.

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Research

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Royal Court

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Players

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Rosencrantz

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Guildenstern

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Hamlet

Christian IV Pieter Isaacsz 1612

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Ophelia

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Claudius

James VI of England

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Gertrude

Anne of Denmark (1606-1608)

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Polonius

Portrait of a bearded gentleman, half- a buff jerkin with a white lawn collar

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Portrait by Karel van Mander III, 1640

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The Players

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Overview of Commedia dell'Arte

Terms:

  • Stock Characters: Commedia characters are set and never change from play to play. They follow the same set of personality quirks, gestures, movements, masks and costumes regardless of who plays them.
  • Lazzi: A physical comic bit in the middle of the play unrelated to the plot. Each actor would have a number of lazzi in their repertoire. They were acrobatic, exaggerated, and often obscene.
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Stock Characters:

  • Pantalone
  • Innamorati
  • Colombina
  • Il Dottore
  • Brighella
  • Zanni

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The Player

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Sleeper- Murdered King

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Player King/ Poisoner

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Player Queen

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Lucianus- Nephew to the King