How should you dress when performing in an improv show? Should you or your whole team just wear something neutral like black or white? Just to make yourselves as much of a blank canvas as possible? Or should you wear something branded with your company colours or logo on? Or should you just wear whatever you want that day straight out of your wardrobe without needing to give it a second thought?
Like with anything in the world of improv, there are no definites, and you can find as many different options and justifications for different styles as there are grains of sand on a beach.
But just saying there are a million options and there are no rights or wrongs isn’t really going to be useful for you, and I’m sure not the answer you were looking for when you started to read this article! As such, allow me to break down some solid choices, and some choices which in most circumstances probably aren’t a good idea for success.
Dress Neutral – Black or White
If you’ve ever done any drama training at a drama school or college, you’ll almost certainly have come across the concept of having rehearsal clothes which are all black. Black T-shirt, black leggings or jogging bottoms, and black dance shoes. In the world of dance and movement, these are classically desired as it allows teachers and audience alike to concentrate on the movement and form of your body without distractions of patterns, pictures or logos.
A benefit of this look, whilst simple, it looks uniform and unifies the company.
For me though, this look feels a bit GCSE or school show, but is a solid choice if you and/or your team are just starting out and are still trying to establish a style and identity for your show.
Wearing all white, or even a combination of all black or all white can be likewise effective, but you’ll quickly show off any scuffs, marks or even dirt or dust from the stage on either tone.
All black, with one item of colour
I’ve seen lots of improv shows where every member of the team will be wearing one main colour – usually black, and then one item of clothing will be another colour. So, it may be that everyone has black shoes, black dress shirt and black trousers as a base. After this, the company picks a colour, such as blue, red, yellow or green, and each company member will have one accessory item in this colour. Items such as hats, braces, waistcoats, scarves and that type of this.
This is generally speaking a good look. It unifies the cast as a company, and can look sleek and professional. The bad side to it, is it is perhaps a bit overdone these days, and can mean that the individual performers lose their individuality.
The Team Branding
Everyone has T-shirts with the company logo on it. This is great if you want to make sure that the audience continually get that reminder of who your team is. It’s not so good for promoting the team members as individuals.
For me, having a strong team is about finding the balance between having the team look like an established company of performers, but also maintaining that the performers are valid individuals. I certainly wouldn’t want audiences to think that all players are interchangeable, as that will work against the idea of the performer building a rapport and connection to the audience.
You could have the branding/logo on the shirts, but not all have the same shirt, or same colour shirt.
Distinct Looks
It may depend on the specific show, and the goals of that show, but personally, I like performers to have a sense of individuality, and wear clothes that show off their personalities on stage. You can set parameters and guidelines within your company, as you may not want one performer pulling focus the entire show because they’re dressed as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. That is understandable!
But outside of anyone dressing in a way that is obviously outlandish, I like performers bringing their own sense of style and personality with them. I generally find this helps them relax and brings out their best, and deepens a connection to the audience who go on the journey with the performers throughout the scenes.
Dressed in What You’d Wear to go Shopping
There’s having a distinct look, and then there’s not putting in any effort at all. If you’re wearing the same clothes you’d wear to the gym, or taking tree cuttings to the dump, or what you’d wear to go to do a late night shop at a supermarket, you’re probably not trying hard enough.
I feel bad saying this in a sense, because maybe you reading this, do wear the same clothes on stage as you would to the gym, and maybe that’s you showing off your personality. Maybe that’s how you’d feel most comfortable.
And if that’s the case, so be it! You do you. But….and there is a but, allow me to give you some food for thought.
If you’re dressed too relaxed, what does this communicate to your audience? Does the way you’re presented on stage suggest you’re not putting in any effort? Does it say ‘I don’t care’? And if the answer is yes, then why should your audience care, if the message, you’re giving is that you don’t care yourself.
There is the idea that if you dress like you’ve come from the audience, that may be where you’re positioning yourself to belong. But if you dress like you belong on stage or screen, you can manifest the audience to accept you there.
I guess what I’m saying is, be comfortable on stage, but not comfortable that you’re rocking up in your PJs without at least thinking about it first.
Costume
Why not? Does your show have a theme? Does it benefit the show if everyone in it is dressed as cowboys or Shakespearian actors? Or what if everyone is dressed in fancy dress, and one of you is dressed as a Star Wars Jedi and another is dressed as a wizard from Lord of the Rings, and another as Pennywise the Dancing Clown?
A big consideration if you go this route is whether your audience will be able to separate you from the character you are dressed as.
Naked Improv
If this is what you came here for, what can I say…you do you.
Well, there you have it. My thoughts and lists of the different ways you can dress to impress on stage. The most important thing is that you work out what works for you and your improv team as a collective. There is no right or wrong, although there are arguably choices that will be commonly be more or less successful than others.
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Want to learn improv skills? You should check out the range of improv books from David Pustansky, who is the author of the popular Extreme Improv Big Book of Improv Games series of books. Available worldwide on Amazon and Kindle, you can find links to the books here
