Creating Costumes in a Giant Ape’s Shadow
Designers
—
Of course most of the costumes he designed for that incarnation are now long gone, shipped off to storage or repurposed into new outfits. That’s what happens when you have a new script by Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) and a new director-choreographer, Drew McOnie. A fresh vision means lots of changes but, in a way, that’s been the creative process of King Kong all along.
“When I first started with Daniel there was no script, and I felt like he used me as a bit of a sounding board,” recalls Kirk. “He’d talk about something and I’d do some drawings and I’d go to a meeting the next day and they’d go, ‘Oh no — we’re not doing that anymore.’ So after a while learned not to draw. It was such a long process over many years. Luckily I was asked to stay with it.”
{Image1}
Although King Kong features cutting-edge technology, a pop-theatre score and a contemporary sensibility, it’s set during the Great Depression. Like the eponymous 1933 film that serves as its template, the production primarily uses a black-and-white color palette, with Kirk’s costumes often supplying the only bursts of color. Yet he chose to clothe King Kong’s object of affection, Ann Darrow (played by Christiani Pitts) almost always in white, so she would pop against the massive silverback puppet.
“She has to do so much and be the center of attention,” Kirk says. “Even on Skull Island [where they find King Kong], you want her to stand out even though it’s dimly lit. So it was a very conscious decision to put her in white.”
{Image2}
But Kirk is pragmatic about his role in King Kong. He realizes audiences are there to marvel at the incredibly lifelike, 20-foot tall, 1.2-ton puppet — not his costumes. “If you do a movie and you dress a thousand extras in rags, people don’t realize the work that’s gone into it,” he says. “This show has become a bit like that. We’ve kept the color palette low. I’ve just tried to punch through the grey a bit.”
He’s also made sure his costumes are functional, not an easy task considering the number of quick changes. “Every time something in the show gets chopped or tightened it affects everything you do,” Kirk says. “There’s been more script changes in this show than anything I’ve ever done! Thirty seconds is usually what you have for a quick change, but in this show it’s shorter. The girls who go out in front of the curtain when King Kong breaks free, they have 10 seconds to get into the next costume for the rampage, which they originally weren’t in. So I had to rethink things.”
Happily, he only had to do the redesigning, not the restitching. “To be perfectly honest I don’t sew!” Kirk admits. “Years ago when I first started out, a girl I grew up with had a costume workshop. She told me, ‘Roger, never learn to sew. As soon as you learn, you’ll be behind the machine and never design again.’ So I never learned. It was great advice!”
To read about a student’s experience at King Kong, check out this post on TDF’s sister site SEEN.
—
Top image: Christiani Pitts in King Kong. Photos by Matthew Murphy.
TDF MEMBERS: Go here to browse our latest discounts for dance, theatre and concerts.
RAVEN SNOOK