Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup: White costumes/white set

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White costumes/white set

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Props, Scenery, Costumes and Makeup
Forum Discription: For how-to's and where-can-I-find
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5287
Printed Date: 10/31/25 at 1:33pm
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Topic: White costumes/white set

Posted By: MusicManD
Subject: White costumes/white set
Date Posted: 3/20/12 at 8:22am

Alright, so we just had our first dress rehearsal last night. Went pretty well, except for this recurring street scene that we have.

It's a pirate themed show, so I have a lot of my main "townie" characters dressed in poor peasant blouses and pants/skirts. There's also a shop front behind them (they own the shop). The problem is that the shop is painted white and the peasant blouses blend right in. There's plenty of color contrast on the other side of the stage (the dock, which is filled with crates, shipments, barrels, and a blue/black backdrop), but this shop side is just white with no depth.

I was considering mixing a very light grey paint and repainting the flats for the shop. Alternately, I was considering mixing up a pail of dirty water (dirt + water) and washing the flats with that, just to dull down the shop front and make the characters stand out.

Any thoughts/good experience here? The shop should look a little shabby anyway, as the entire island town is supposed to be very poor due to the ravaging pirates.

If you have lighting tips, I'd take those too, although I only have a VERY limited number of lights to work with.

Replies:

Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 3/20/12 at 12:52pm

Gray isn't enough of a contrast. Go for tan, brown, dull gold and muddle it all up so you'll have a stucco-like effect. Sort of an aged half-timber Tudor style effect. That'll give you depth, interest, and contrast for your costumes. IMHO.

Posted By: David McCall
Date Posted: 3/20/12 at 1:55pm

I personally don't like sets that are white unless absolutely necessary. It is hard to make actors stand out. You wind up with them looking like silhouettes in many cases. I'm not a big fan of sets painted to a color that matches skin tone either.

Can you tell? I tend to like sets to be relatively dark. You can always brighten up a set by adding light but you usually are pretty limited in what you can do in the way of taking light off of the set because the actors usually get right up next to it and you don't want them to be too dark.

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David M

Posted By: Theatrepalooza
Date Posted: 3/29/12 at 10:49pm

I vote for a glaze of darker earth tones and a great trick for texture and color is to get some watered down paint and have a ball flicking that brush...let drip streams go where they will....you'll have a nice dingy realistically distressed shop that will allow those white skirts to stand out beautifully.

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Jim
http://www.zazzle.com/theatrepalooza?rf=238405855706136288 - Check Out THEATREPALOOZA, my online gift shop for theater people!