Theater Fashion Parade

With Great Lakes Theater Festival and the Cleveland Play House, our two equity theaters, about to start their seasons — and with costumes such a huge part of the theatrical experience — we thought we should give a nod to what the well-dressed audience member ought to be wearing this year. After all, as any civilized person knows, no one wears the same outfit to a serious tragedy as to a frothy comedy or merry musical.

Who better to discuss the art of superb style than the artistic directors themselves? So we asked James Bundy of the Great Lakes Theater Festival and Peter Hackett of the Cleveland Play House to annotate their respective seasons, explaining their rationale for choosing the plays, and, most importantly, offering a well-placed fashion tip or two.

Bundy, with a boyish buzz cut, has the aura of a New England prep school boy just out of knee pants. This is his second year as artistic director and will be the first season he has personally selected. He says his mission is "to steer the festival out of the museum to works embedded in American culture, plays that emphasize beauty of form and language."

Thunder Knocking on the Door (October 14-31) is Great Lakes' season opener. It's the pre-Broadway launching pad for this blues musical fantasia set in 1960s Alabama. "Master traveler Marvel Thunder has come down to challenge the twin children of the only musician who ever beat him in a "cutting contest,' a musical face-off on blues guitars that will decide everyone's fate," says Bundy, who first saw the work in Cincinnati. He says he was knocked out by its "celebratory exuberance," choosing it as a racial work "about love rather than hate." He suggests that audiences study the only known photo of Delta blues legend Robert Johnson and try to emulate his insouciant overalls by wearing denim.

The Wild Duck (January 27-February 13), Ibsen's exploration of the consequences of an explosive secret on a teenage girl, has been the bane of every lit major. In a new adaptation by Anthony Clarvoe commissioned by Bundy, the play is given a fresh spin by being set in present-day Cleveland. In addition, dozens of local celebrities will be doing walk-ons on a rotating basis. Bundy was inspired by his participation in the traveling company Cornerstone Theater, which used to cover the country, updating classics and setting them in the city in which it was playing. For Ibsen, one must always wear thoughtful, depressive colors: An Yves St. Laurent suit in a muted gray or green would be ideal.

Twelfth Night (March 16-April 2). When pondering what Shakespeare to present, Bundy's former cohort, director Daniel Fish of the Shakespeare Theater of Washington, suggested that Twelfth Night's blending of melancholy, sadness, romance, and farce would make it an ideal crowd-pleaser. This production will be set in the early twentieth century, and Bundy promises a haunting original score, lots of moonlight and pianos, and perhaps just a touch of Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night. To emphasize the motif of romantic twins, it is suggested that you and your theater companion try wearing identical N. Peel cashmere sweaters.

Travels With My Aunt (April 27-May 14). An adaptation of Graham Greene's romantic comic novel about eccentric Aunt Augusta, a sort of British Auntie Mame, who liberates her repressed nephew through outrageous adventures. This scintillating stage version by Giles Havergal is written to be performed by four veddy British-sounding male actors. Bundy, who is directing, says he chose it for its magnificent distillation of Greene's incisive high comedy. He goes so far as to call it "rip-roaring." It was a major success off Broadway and should be viewed in the finest Brooks Brothers tweeds (even in early May).

A Christmas Carol (December 1-26). Yes, again, for the eleventh time. Bundy swears that he is not keeping this show just as a cash cow. With its use of light and dark shadows, Gothic special effects, and Shakespearean bravado, Bundy claims former artistic director Gerald Freedman's adaptation of Dickens is the ideal "introduction to theater for any age," and he cannot resist the temptation of directing something that will be seen by approximately 22,000 impressionable, potential future Great Lakes Theater patrons. Must be experienced in jingle bell pins and reindeer sweaters.

Now on to the Play House. Beginning his fifth season as artistic director, Peter Hackett, in his wire-rimmed glasses, exudes the fervor of a Hawthorne Puritan. He has slowly triumphed in his double mission to expunge the damage inflicted by his megalomaniac predecessor and bring a Cleveland flavor back to the Play House through his highly successful playwrights' workshops and readings. Admittedly, he still has a long way to go in casting local actors in major roles. Hackett sees the artistic director's main role as "setting the vision." His proudest boast is, out of ten new plays this season, half will be world premieres.