The Sandbox is a play that isn’t constrained to one time and this is reflected in the costume choices I have made for this design. Venice Beach is what I visualize for the set, green grass with a sidewalk as a barrier for the sand. The sky changes indicated in the script make me think of a beach and the wide varying colors as it progresses from day to night. This place is a limbo and as such the costumes don’t adhere to a specific time. The Musician is a young man, possibly of color, who carries a boom box on his shoulder and this is where the musical quest come from as he switches stations or cassettes. The Musician’s time period suggests the height of boombox use which would be the 1980s-90s. Following with the beach idea the Young Man is represented as a beach bum, surfer dude type. He would have a surfboard that he would be polishing or leaning against rather than doing calisthenics as indicated in the script.
Mommy and Daddy are two more characters that don’t adhere to one time period but rather a few different ones. Mommy would be dressed more modernly looking like the wife of a politician around the 90s early 2000s, think Hillary Clinton. This look adds to the severity and imposing personality she displays through the play, contrastingly Daddy would be dressed more relaxed. For Daddy I envision a dark bowling shirt and dark slacks. His garb would show how he is not as harsh and composed as his counterpart. Lastly, Grandma will have a more modern look with black and white being the two colors of focus. The contrast of light and dark is indicative of her being both living of the living and dying world in her final moments.
The images show the prelinary sketchs on the left side and the final collages on the right side.
Reseach for this project can be found on my Pinterest board: Costuming and Makeup
