Detailed Analysis of Costume and Set Design in Antigone

This assignment analyzes the costume and set design in Sophocles' play, Antigone. The student explores the costume designer's process, including research, sketching, and character representation, focusing on the character of Creon and how his costume (a brown or black toga) reflects his personality and role. The assignment also examines the set designer's process, research methodologies, and how the architectural design of the theatre influences the set. The set design is discussed in the context of the play's setting in Thebes, reflecting ancient Greek culture and the drama's themes. The analysis includes references to scholarly articles and provides a comprehensive overview of the design elements' impact on the play's overall effect.

Running head: Antigone Analysis
Antigone Analysis
Name of the student
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Authors note

Antigone Analysis
COSTUME DESIGN
What is the Costume Designer’s process?
Costumes defines the nature of the character to the audience, they are the major part of role-play
in the theatre. A costume has many purpose, like it is reveals the character of the play, tell about
the place and time, that is, about the social and cultural milieu (Martin 2018). Thus costume
design goes through a process that involves many steps, like analysis, design collaborations,
costume research, preliminary sketching and color layout and Final sketches.
What kind of research does a Costume Designer do?
Costume designers need to keep in record of a lot of parameters because costume creation is just
not for recreation but it is important to know where the character is heading. Therefore the
costume designers may analyze the script, for instance, whether it is for a musical or for a theatre
or dance number or so on (Morais 2018). Then it is important to understand the nature of the
character or the way, the director wants to the character on the stage. The costume designer also
researches on the variety of material available in clothes, for example specific design or
combination of two materials and so on.
What can costumes reveal about character?
Costumes reveals a lot about the character, it reveals the time and the occasion a
particular drama is periodical. It also enumerates the kind of person the character is, that is the
role of the character is visually described by the type attire he or she wears. Garments and

Antigone Analysis
additional wigs or so on tells us so much about the history of the character or sometime how they
have fared or what they have been up to and so on.
Choose one of the two scripts we read this semester, select one character, and describe
how you would costume the actor to reveal the essence of the character.
The character of Creon is a powerful character portraying the role of Antigone’s Uncle. He is
man who is suffering from the stricture of prescription and proscription. Since he is a strong
character he was dressed with bold color like a brown or black Toga (Cairns 2016). Toga is
drape that is being worn by the Romans, thus it situates the drama in the period of 400 A.D.
therefore the brown color toga reflects the personality of Creon, who is man of high morals and
is burdened with list of rules and law. He is also man with practical views but now has totally
surrendered to the throne.
SET DESIGN
What is the Set Designer’s process?
The main target of the set designer is to create a unique and specific idea, that will be
aesthetically evocative and which will draw the audience to the set. The set designer needs to
know about the script of the play, or the way in which the directors are planning for the theme to
come out. They also need to understand the situation thematically and historically; they need to
be mindful about the playable space. It is the set design that we understand the journey of the
character.
What kind of research does a Set Designer do? What are the three levels on which
research that take place?

Antigone Analysis
The set designer must understand the purpose of the script and then situate it accordingly.
He or she needs to understand the time period in which it is taking place along with the
mood of the character (Ascarelli 2016). The set designer needs to know about the
intentions or the way towards which the script is heading too. The three levels on which
the research takes place are, time period, the mood of the play and the nature of the
character.
How might the architectural design of the theatre affect set design?
The architectural design has the control of the movement of the physical realm. So
wherever the character moves, it is already been structured by the architectural designs.
Moreover, the emotional of the charters gets substantiated by the set design.
Choose one of the two scripts we read this semester, describe how you would
communicate the time and place with set design.
The set design in Antigone by Sophocles is situated in the disaster prone city-state named
Thebes. The stage setting of Antigone reflects the ancient Greek culture and their oral tradition.
It also reflects the ultimate nature of the drama. This is because if one ponders furthers,
Athenians were objective about the tragedy, thus tragedies were always sets in set in Greece in
the distant past. Thus the set deigns reflect about the time specific to the play.

Antigone Analysis
References
Ascarelli, Tullio. "Antigone and Portia." The Italian Law Journal(2016): 604.
Cairns, Douglas. Sophocles: Antigone. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
Martin, Brandi Danielle. An Antigone of Dying Sunsets and Buried Flames: Offering Voice
Through Light. Diss. 2018.
Morais, Carlos, Lorna Hardwick, and Maria de Fáima Silva. Portrayals of Antigone in Portugal:
20th and 21st Century Rewritings of the Antigone Myth. Brill, 2017.