The Tempest

Concept

Classwork for Costume Studio at the University of Texas at Austin, 2020.

This theoretical production of The Tempest draws on Art Nouveau imagery as a through line for the piece. The elemental imagery in the play, particularly that of the sea and sky, felt embodied aesthetically in the architecture of architects like Gaudí and other artists of the Belle Époque. The design draws a contrast between the Bohemian-inspired people of the island (referencing Mucha and the aesthetic dress movement), while the shipwrecked Milanese embody the more constrained and subdued fashions of the late 1890s. Prospero is set in the center, heavily inspired by the fashions of Alphonse Mucha and the elements of the island, and he shapes the aesthetic of the island as he shapes the events of the play.