NUCKIDS KNOW: THE MAIN THING IS TO FIT THE COSTUME!

31.07.2011

Fitting a costume for a professional artist is not a joke. It is a part of an interesting and hard work. How to fit your character, how to feel organically on stage, how to attract the audience? Costume can be the key to all these questions, but it can also become a disaster. “You always have to understand the costume before going on stage,” says production director Alena Zakharova. “Just imagine: the play premiere, the actor has an important monologue, and all he/she can think about where it’s tight, how bad it looks, and so on… The quality of the performance depends on how comfortable and confident the actor feels in the costume. It’s very important!”

The right approach to the design of stage costumes is the main part of the musical’s success. That’s why NucKids took this issue very seriously, assigning the creation of costumes to the fashion company CHAPURIN COUTURE. “Igor Chapurin designed the costumes for the children’s musical Bunker of Freedom in such a way,” explains Alexandra, the design project manager, “that all the specifics of stage work were taken into account: ease of movement for complex choreography, comfort, vividness, and visual impact under stage lighting.” Alena Zakharova was delighted to confirm that the costumes turned out exactly as intended: “They are amazingly theatrical! Excellent, rich colors: sand, coral, light green, and seafoam… Very good fabric! These are wonderful stage clothes that will look stunning under the lights!”

I wonder what our young talents think about the new clothes. How important is the first costume fitting for them? “I used to only try to imagine that I was Ryu, a boy from an extremely troubled family,” shares “nuclear” actor Roma (Ryu), “but as soon as I put on the ‘working’ jumpsuit, I immediately felt the difference between myself and the Chicks. It became clear at once: I am Ryu, a car washer. That’s how clothes can help you get into the role!” Natasha (the leading Chick) absolutely agrees with Roma: “Yes, when you work in costume, it’s much easier to get into character! And in general, the costume is very comfortable, it’s easy to do all the choreography in it… Very cool!”

So far, only a few of the main characters have been dressed – Chicks, Ryu and the Captain. And the costume design team still has 27 outfits for the main characters and 20 for the teenage extras ahead of them. No matter what they say, there’s a lot of work to be done! We’ll keep these costumes a secret for now (although we’ve already seen the approved sketches). Also, there are exactly 12 days left until the premiere of the musical…