Stefano Di Renzo – Lab:time
Stefano Di Renzo was awarded Lab:time in December to find ways that clothes could be designed specifically for the purpose of being used in circus performance.
Stefano said of the project: in these 5 days of Lab:time I was fortunate to thoroughly investigate a new idea without the pressure to immediately turn my findings into a sellable product. These opportunities are so rare in the current climate and invaluable to invent. Lab:time enabled me to take real risks and dare to try out ideas I did not know would work.
He worked with Tina Koch as the female performer and object manipulator, who agreed that the Lab:time was vital for being a ‘pressure-free space’. She said of the time they spent in the Creation Studio: these 5 days opened the door to a whole new world and I believe there is a gem of a show hidden within.
The Lab:time was a collaboration with Tina Bicât, a costume designer who has won the Critic’s Circle Award for her work with Punchdrunk, and has written several books on various aspects of theatre practice. Stefano wrote of her contribution: Sharing her vast experience of creating intricately crafted costumes that hide all sorts of tricks and wonderful surprises, she opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities in costume design for circus.
The aim of my project was to research the manufacturing/design needs of a costume that has the perfect properties for being manipulated as an object and explore its choreographic and theatrical possibilities. Imagine trousers, shirts, dresses, shoes and jackets that look like everyday clothing, but have been carefully designed to move well when being thrown and caught and manipulated.
By incorporating hidden magnets and weights in the perfect place in the fabric and experimenting with different shapes and materials I wanted to come up with a prototype for male and female clothing that manipulates well.
We learned a great deal about the inherent manipulation properties of different types of fabric and have been able to identify exactly what we need to make a more intricate prototype for male and female clothing.
By playing around with the clothes and doing some lead improvisations we found some exciting possibilities we hadn’t previously thought of. There is a great promise in layering clothing of different properties and incorporating hidden tricks.
Other than just manipulating the fabric there is also the possibility that the costume might turn into all sorts of circus equipment: A pair of trouser legs extending into Silks, two sleeves of a top being wound up into a slack rope…
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