Blossom Peach Trees: Costume as a City Portrait

ABSTRACT

This presentation is related to the devised performance Blossom Peach Trees produced and presented by the Municipal State Theatre of Veria in Greece and focuses on the research and design process of costuming for this devised performance. Blossom Peach Trees portrays certain aspects of the history of the city of Veria and costume has been the starting point in the devising process, including accurate research in private and public costume archives of the city itself. The research and costume design process outlines a variety of references such as local, formal dress codes and their relationship to international fashion and traditional historical folk costume. The research and design outcomes have been incorporated into the performance and the dramaturgy creating the performance aesthetics which, via costume, generate the portrait of a whole city on stage.

BIOGRAPHY

Tasos Protopsaltou is a scenographer, costume designer, and Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Fine Arts, University of Western Macedonia, Greece. Born in 1980 in Greece, he studied Performing Arts, Scenography, Costume Design and Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, National School of Cinema in Rome and Wimbledon School of Arts. His work includes direction for opera, stage, costume and light design for theatre, dance, opera and experimental forms of performing arts, installations and performances. His main research areas are the relation between Visual and Performing Arts, the visual transcription of the dramaturgy in the performative context and the History of Opera. In 2009, founded the Scenography and Costume Design Course at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Western Macedonia, where he is currently teaching. Tasos has taught, lectured and published internationally. Tasos’ recent opera projects include direction and design for Hippolyte et Aricie by Jean Philippe Rameau (2015), Dramatic Queens – Arias from the 17th Century (2016) and L’ Incoronazione di Poppea (2017). Tasos’ credits include the first staging of L’Incoronazione di Poppea in Greece (2011). Tasos was a nominee for the European Opera Award under 35 for Direction and Scenography. He was invited as Professor for Opera Design at the Academia di Belle Arti di Venezia in spring 2017. Tasos is a member of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) of Unesco and The Visual Arts Chamber of Greece.