costumereport



 In // The Death of Trotsky // I took in to consideration all of the responsibilities of the costume designer in order to create the best possible costumes for Trotsky, Mrs. Trotsky, and Ramon. The first character I chose to create a costume for was Trotsky himself. After doing some initial research on Trotsky, I discovered that he was a prominent politician, a Bolshevik revolutionary, and a Marxist theorist in the early 1900's. Russian politicians of this time period typically wore suits. From actual photographs of Leon Trotsky, it is known that he usually wore dark suits. These suits consist of a dark jacket, dark pants, a white shirt, a neck tie, and a dark vest. For the play I decided on designing Trotsky's suit to consist of a black jacket and pants, a white undershirt, a black tie, and a lighter grey vest. I feel that the overall darkness of Trotsky's suit will not only play into the accuracy of what Trotsky would have actually worn during this time period, but it also plays with the idea of a darker more grim appearance since the play is mocking his death. I chose the costume to have a grey vest because I felt that having an all black vest did not bring enough contrast to Trotsky's appearance. The grey in the suit helps to better contrast the blacks and the whites.  Some side accessories that are important in concluding Trotsky's outfit are his shoes and his glasses. His shoes need to be fine black leather dress shoes to fit along with his black suit. It is also known from research and from picture evidence that Trotsky wore glasses to improve his vision. Since in the play Trotsky is murdered at his study, it is important for him to be wearing his glasses in order for him to appear as he had been working at his desk. The classes will be black and round in order to display the type of glasses that were around during the early 1900s. Another key aspect is to design a headpiece that will look as if an axe had been smashed, not buried, into his head. They make costume accessories that consist of a head band with a axe built onto it to give the allusion of being imbedded in one's head. I will obtain one of theses for the production so that Trotsky appears to have an axe lodged into his skull.  Overall the suit I designed for Trotsky fits well with the type of person he was in actually life. Trotsky was a upper class Russian politician in the early 1900s and his fine quality suit and leather shoes will display his status and the time period from which he was from. The suit will be fitted to the actor so that the actor can move well around the stage without the costume being too tight or too baggy. Also the spectacles that Trotsky will wear will give him the appearance of being scholarly and as if he had been studying. The axe headpiece will create the allusion of having been hit in the head by Ramon which is a crucial aspect for the humor of the play.  For the character of Mrs. Trotsky I researched what the typical garb was for upper class women of the early 1900's. I also researched Mrs. Trotsky herself, and although there was not much information on her, I did find a couple of actual pictures that helped to give me a good idea about what she wore in actual life. From what I found, Mrs. Trotsky dressed very simply. I found one picture of her that I thought would fit nicely into the costume I plan on designing for the play. She was wearing a black sweater over a what appears to be a diamond patterned black and white blouse. With this top I will design a black knee length skirt with black pantyhose and black woman's dress shoes. I feel that this overall appearance is accurate with something that Mrs. Trotsky would have actually worn in real life based on her culture and on the time period from which she was from. To help also further compliment Mrs. Trotsky's appearance I plan adding to her costume a gold necklace, a gold wedding band, and gold earrings. The jewelry is something that most women of her age and background would wear and the ring is obviously symbolic of her marriage with Leon Trotsky.  For the third and final character, Ramon, I found that I could not research his background to create his costume. The reason I could not do this is because in the play he was disguised as a Mexican gardener in order to trick Trotsky, therefore he would not be dressed in what he would typically wear in real life. I decided to approach Ramon's costume as a way to give the play some more comic relief. Because both Trotsky and Mrs. Trotsky are dressed very formally and in dark colors, I decided to spice things up a bit with Ramon. Ramon's costume will be that of the typical sombrero and serape wearing Mexican. A serape is a traditional Latin American shawl or wrap that is often made of bright multi colored wool. This type out outfit is often stereotyped as what Mexicans wear and will therefore add humor to the play.