Understand costume, props and makeup, including what they communicate about character and world, the use of personal and set props, and how objects can carry symbolic meaning

What this dot point is asking

SEAB wants you to understand costume, props and makeup: what costume and makeup communicate about character, period, status and mood, the difference between personal and set props, and how objects can carry symbolic meaning. You should be able to explain what these elements tell an audience, how they support a performance, and how a prop becomes a symbol. The central insight is that costume, props and makeup are storytelling tools, not mere accessories: they tell the audience who a character is and what world they inhabit, often at a glance, they help the actor inhabit the role, and a single well-used object can gain symbolic weight that carries the meaning of a piece.

The answer

What costume communicates

Costume is far more than clothing; it is read by the audience and tells them about a character before and during the action. Costume can show character - personality and taste - and status and wealth, period and setting, age, role or occupation, and even mood. A change of costume can mark a change in a character, such as a shift from smart to dishevelled showing a decline, or from drab to bright showing a transformation. Because the audience reads costume instantly, it is a quick and powerful means of establishing who someone is and what their world is like.

What makeup communicates

Makeup also communicates and supports a character. It can show age, making a young actor older or suggesting youth; health and state, suggesting illness, exhaustion or injury; and character type, especially in stylised work. Makeup can be naturalistic, simply helping the face read under lights, or stylised, used boldly to signal a non-realistic world or a heightened character. Like costume, makeup helps the audience read the character and helps the actor feel and inhabit the role, so it is part of the storytelling rather than decoration.

Personal and set props

Props are objects used in a piece, and they divide into two kinds. A personal prop is an object handled or carried by a particular character, such as a letter, a watch, a walking stick or a phone, often closely tied to that character and to the action. A set prop, or set dressing, is an object that is part of the environment, such as furniture or items on a table, helping to establish the world. The distinction matters because personal props tend to be active in the action, handled and reacted to, while set props mostly build the setting, though the line can blur.

How props support character and action

Props support both character and action. A personal prop can reveal character through how a person handles it, and can drive the action when it is sought, lost, given or destroyed. Props ground a scene in a concrete world and give performers something real to do, which supports believable behaviour. The way a character uses an object - carefully, carelessly, lovingly, violently - tells the audience about them. So props are practical tools of the action and means of characterisation at once, and a performer's relationship with a prop is part of the performance.

How objects become symbols

Beyond their practical use, props, costume and even makeup can become symbolic, carrying meaning beyond the literal. A prop becomes a symbol when the drama invests it with meaning through repetition, through how characters treat it, and through the meaning the action attaches to it, so that it comes to stand for an idea or feeling - a ring for a relationship, a photograph for the past, a coat for a lost person. A costume item or a stylised makeup choice can work the same way. Used deliberately, a single charged object can carry a theme economically, which is why thinking symbolically about costume, props and makeup adds depth to a piece, as long as the meaning is allowed to grow rather than being announced.

Examples in context

Example 1. Costume marking a fall. A character begins a piece in a crisp, well-kept uniform that signals their pride and status. As they decline across the piece, the costume becomes torn, stained and disordered. The change of costume tells the audience the character's fall without a word, showing how costume can track a character's arc visually.

Example 2. The prop that becomes a symbol. A worn toy is carried by a grieving parent throughout a piece, clutched, set down, picked up again. Through repetition and the care with which it is handled, the toy comes to stand for the lost child, so that its final placement on an empty chair carries the whole weight of the loss, demonstrating how an ordinary prop becomes a symbol.

Try this

Q1. Name four things costume can communicate to an audience. [3 marks]

• Cue. Any four of: character or personality, status and wealth, period and setting, age, role or occupation, and mood; a change of costume can also mark a change in the character.

Q2. Explain the difference between a personal prop and a set prop. [3 marks]

• Cue. A personal prop is an object handled or carried by a particular character, such as a letter or a watch, often active in the action; a set prop is an object that is part of the environment, such as furniture, helping to establish the world.

Q3. Explain how a prop can become a symbol in a piece of drama. [4 marks]

• Cue. A prop becomes a symbol when the drama invests it with meaning beyond its literal use, through repetition, through how characters treat it, and through the meaning the action attaches to it, so that it comes to stand for an idea or feeling, such as a ring standing for a relationship, with the meaning allowed to grow rather than being explained.