Page to Stage: Costume Design for Performance

How a performer looks should tell the audience something about their character and circumstances. They must 'fit' the production style, while still looking like they are wearing clothes the character would wear. Page to Stage: Costume design for performance showcases designs and garments from the QPAC Museum collection. The exhibition features work from some of Brisbane’s leading costume designers, from a variety of productions including The Tragedy of Richard II, Popular Mechanicals, Cosi, The Soldier’s Tale, The Marriage of Figaro, and Batholomew Fair.

This production for the Queensland Performing Arts Centre was directed by Sue Rider and designed by Bill Haycock.

This costume was worn by a slightly shady "purveyor of wares" and was designed to be like a flasher opening his dull overcoat to reveal the colourful wonders within.

In this La Boite / QPAC production designed by Dan Potra, the costumes reflect the period of the play, and the different worlds of the characters, while the costumes for the opera within the play reflect a more hand-made occupational therapy aesthetic

What if Elizabethan style dress had never quite fallen out of fashion? What if cod pieces and capes were still all the rage? Popular Mechanicals goes behind the scenes of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and explores the off-stage lives of the 'rude mechanicals' as they hold down their day jobs and still find time to rehearse for an appearance at the Duke's wedding festivities.

Midsummer’s night becomes midsummer’s day. As evening descends, cabaret descends into chaos.

The Queensland Theatre Company has mounted the play twice. In 1992 it was directed by David Bell, and in 1998 by Neil Armfield. Both productions were designed by Dale Ferguson.