The “Making”-- and “Unmaking”-- of the Winter’s Tale: A Semiology of Costumes

Allison Gormley is a senior at Montclair State University studying Theater Studies and English Education. She expects to graduate in December 2016 after completing her student teaching in the Fall. After graduating, Allison hopes to teach English Language Arts and Drama at the high school level and direct student plays. She hopes to also pursue a career in writing and dramatic criticism (combining her love of English and Theater). At Montclair, she performed in the Theater Department productions of Henry V (the Boy), The Cherry Orchard (Charlotta), The Persians, and most recently in Samuel Beckett's Not I (Mouth). Allison's favorite playwrights (at the moment) include Shakespeare, Baker. Her theater concentrations include acting, dramaturgy, directing and writing. Keir Elam introduces the complexities of theatre semiotics by reminding the reader that " The drama had become (and largely remains) an annexe of the property of literary critics, while the stage spectacle, [is] considered too ephemeral a phenomenon for systematic study… " (5). Shakespeare's works have long been critiqued dramatically, (" that composed for the theatre ") but the performance text, " that produced in the theatre, " is often ignored (Elam 5). There is worth in looking at both the dramatic and performance aspect of a play, however " dissimilar " they can be (Elam 5). In analyzing both, one can discover a surprising disconnect between Shakespeare's dramatic text and the physical performance of a play, especially when directors are desperate to be unique or to 'reinvent' a play that is hundreds of years old and produced with an array of designs. Design, direction, and an actor's speech can alter the semiotics of a work, thus becoming a large influence, for better or for worse, in an audience's interpretation. Design needs to be particularly vigilant in supporting, rather than distracting from, the power relations and hierarchy in a play due to its semiological system of visual symbols. Montclair State's recent Spring 2015 production is an example of design undermining the text of a play, due to semiological red-herrings. The plot of the Winter's Tale is heavily