John Stapleton
“Utopia. Utopia is perfection! The land of desire! Utopia is change. Utopia is power. You must assert yourself. Be violent, if necessary. Ignorance is bliss, dear. Maintain order and control. Come to Utopia, manifest your destiny!”
Research Question
How does colour of the costume effect the perception of the character?
As a costume designer the elements of colour are quite prevalent to what I do in order to create a harmonious look to the characters. Trying to understand their place in the world of the play as well as trying to convey to the audience what the characters are going through and how should the audience perceive the characters. With Charlotte her whole outlook on life seems to be use people to
get what you want, no matter the consequences. This can be seen in both the way she talks in in the monologue *see above red* as well as the character bio written by Joshua for the character “Charlotte…maintains a high level of knowledge of utopia and its residents and uses her position to manipulate others in becoming a manifestation of their desires” (Barroso 2025). As such she would need a rather prominent colour in order to convey both her high rank and her manipulative mindset.
Central Purpose
In this Research Report I provide my findings based on how the colour of a character’s costume affects the perception of that character in Utopia. To support my observations are references that include Chapter six of (whatever the book is) and Graphics for the performing arts: the complete book of drawing for theatre. These two sources accompanied by the colour palette my and Nadine worked on should help to offer insight into the exploration of the affect of colour on the perception of characters within the world of Utopia.
Main Concept
The main concept that my research explores is the relation to the characters that colour has. Specifically in Utopia there is an emphasis on the colours of the characters. Charlotte being red, Beatty being purple, Mary being blue, and Johnny being black. Each of these particular colours were chosen to best illustrate the personalities of each character. As a designer it is important to understand why these colours were chosen and what each of them mean when depicting a character. In the script the character names were already highlighted in their respective colours.
Not only informing the actors portraying the characters but also the designers as to each personality of said characters. When discussing with Nadine about the relations of characters we had to start with the set colour first and then added the character colours over top of that. For charlotte her red was initially a very start contrast towards the greenish grey on the set. we needed charlotte to feel as though she was much more a part of utopia than someone who immediately stands out.
Central findings
“Beginning colour schemes can be formulated by using colour chips, locating swatches of fabric, or colouring thumbnails” (Allyn & Bacon, 1995).
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For our colour palette when discussing the colours outlined in the script we found that as is these colours worked really well, however once we introduced the background into the colour selection it became easier to see red as out outlier of the group (figure 1). We know Charlotte had to have a domineering presence;
however, we also ​​know that Charlotte was also someone who had been in utopia the longest and needed to blend in more so with her surroundings. In order to not onlycreate a harmonious colour palette but also to convey who Charlotte was as a character we needed to take her bright red down into more of a plum colour.
Since we were working with a very intense colour like red, we know that certain connotations would come along with it “striking, active, intense, defiant, powerful, masterful, strong aggressive, and hostile” (Gillette 1987). All of which we still has to encapsulate within Charlotte but also not have her stand out as much since she has been in utopia for nearly more than 6+ years. Even though charlotte has now muted her colour into plumb (figure 2-3), the intensity of her as a person and the connotations that come with that are also seen, for example Joshua and Hanna both mentioned that Beatty was supposed to be in-between charlotte and Mary. Sort of the median between two extremes. Even with the editing of the colour to a more purple, since Mary has also been darkened down to a deeper blue than the light baby-blue the same affect could still be achieved.
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It is important to make these changes because as an audience there are certain things that will stand out to you as Rebecca Cunningham points out “The costumes define the characters and relate to the other visual elements . the total impression conveyed by these visual elements must support the theme and concept of the play and set the
mood intended by the playwright” (Rebecca Cunningham 2019). So for example in the case of Charlotte, her red was much more akin to true red she would immediately stand out and the audience would know she stands out. Since she is in all red, there would already be the intuition of her being the antagonist without her having to do anything. However, when talking with Hanna and Nadine about this they both agreed that a more subtler reveal would be better suited for such a character since the whole idea of utopia is it starts out as an idyllic world but then slowly unravels into a hellish nightmare.
Here above are also some examples of bright red directing the audience towards and unease of feeling vs a more subdued purply plum colour. I believe that these findings are very useful as they help hammer home the importance of colour when it comes to characters. It cannot just ‘look cool’ it has to be methodically thought out as to why exactly the characters appear in the colours that they do and how the colours inform the costume directly. It helps to know who the character is, how they behave and how their costume becomes an extension of the person. As well as what the audience should know and be surprised by. How to not just handhold the audience but actually leave room for them to be drawn in by colour choices nd not make assumptions that would spoil the fun of the piece. Lastly this also helps future tech crews and other creative members think about what is important when dissecting a script, how when talking to the director a simple question like “what colour do you see ‘x’ character in?” can be such a tremendous help to serving the vision of the director.