The role of the sound designer is very similar to that of the scenic designer (see above Role of the scenic designer). Sound designers first read a play’s script to learn its plot and characters as well as its period, locale, mood, and so forth. Additionally, the designer searches the script for information specific to the sound design, such as onstage noises—the ringing of a telephone, for instance—as well as offstage noises such as trains or storms. The designer also looks for scenes in which sounds could be used to support the mood of the play. Often referred to as atmospheric sounds, these may not be specified in the script but can be added to help the audience understand the emotional and physical environments of the play. For example, Rain (1922), a play adapted from a short story by the English writer W. Somerset Maugham, is set in Pago Pago, a port city on the Pacific island of Tutuila, and takes place as a typhoon approaches and then engulfs it. A background track that replicates the sound of a gentle breeze and, over the last two-thirds of the play, builds into a full-blown typhoon would greatly assist in creating the tension-filled atmosphere of the play.

After synthesizing information gathered from the script and production meetings, the sound designer begins the actual work of creating, recording, and editing the music and effects that make up the production’s sound design. The sound designer also works to assemble the playback and vocal-reinforcement equipment that will be used when the production moves into the theatre. After all the sounds have been gathered and created, the sound designer edits them into a show file, which consists of digitized sound cues edited into the sequence in which they are to be used during the production. These cues are typically adjusted—they may be added, changed, or deleted, and loudness and cue placement may be altered—during the rehearsal period, but, once the show opens, they usually undergo no additional changes. However, the sound designer may oversee adjustments to the equipment reinforcing an actor’s voice as the action is occurring. These “on the fly” adjustments are both normal and constant.

Classical theatrical costume

Theatrical costumes were an innovation of the Greek poet Thespis in the 6th century bce, and theatrical costumes were long called “the robes of Thespis.” Athenians spent lavishly on the production and costumes at annual drama contests. Each poet was given a wealthy citizen, the chorēgos, who, encouraged by the honour of a separate state impresario’s prize, tended to make the event a demonstration of his spending power.

Actors in the earliest tragedies wore long, rich robes similar to those worn by the priests of Dionysus. To increase the height and importance of the principal actors, Aeschylus introduced the buskin, an elevated boot called in Greek a kothornos (plural kothornoi). It became one of the chief characteristics of the Greek tragic actor. The soles increased in thickness according to the status of the wearer. To balance his height, padding often was used to add bulk to the actor’s stature. So that they could dance with ease, members of the chorus did not wear these boots. The performers were clad in stage tunics, called chitons, which were long-sleeved, high-girdled, and elaborately embellished, as were their long and short cloaks (himations and chlamyses). Aeschylus was renowned for the brilliant mounting and costuming of his tragedies, and by the time of his death, in the mid-5th century bce, a traditional tragic costume had evolved. Each costume was rendered in a symbolic colour.

The most important feature of the Greek costume was the mask, which indicated the character’s age, sex, station, and customary mood. The masks were made of linen, cork, or wood and were skillfully carved and painted. Their funnel-shaped mouths are thought to have acted as megaphones to amplify the voice. In his Onomasticon, Julius Pollux, a Greek writer of the 2nd century ce, gives a detailed account of the special features accorded to each character. He enumerates 30 masks used in tragedy and lists the characteristics of the comedy series, which are particularly exaggerated and grotesque. The onkos, a high ornate headdress, crowned some masks, adding height and thus importance to the wearer.

In the Doric mimes and Old Comedies, the upper-class characters wore stage chitons and cloaks, and the lower classes and slaves wore short tunics, revealing pendant phalli. These character tunics were often worn under light-fitting vests and over grotesque padding of torso and buttocks. Mimic horses, satyrs, bird figures, and other animal imitations were much in evidence. Aristophanes, in The Wasps, The Birds, and The Frogs, calls for all manner of such figures and clothing. Actors performed in skins and wore horses’ heads, birdlike visors, and mock wings.

In the later comedy of Menander, the phallus and mythological elements were abandoned, for his intention was to represent urban life, and the costumes worn reflected this intention. Masks became more stereotyped; they were used over and over again for character parts in different plays. Colour symbolism still held great importance.

Roman drama had its indigenous roots in the Etruscan mimetic dances. Mime, together with acrobatic dancing, became a favourite part of the day’s entertainment at the games or circuses. Plays too were among the diversions; to satisfy the crowd’s taste for realism and sensation, legions of spectacularly dressed soldiers were introduced to the tragedies. Costumes for tragedy were modeled on Greek styles; by Roman times the name cothurnus (from kothornos) had come to designate the tragic genre itself. Kings and queens in tragedies wore appropriate padding, tall wigs, and sleeved syrma (the robe corresponding to the chiton). Bands of bright hues decorated the costumes of happy characters, and gray, green, or blue those of fugitives. Gods and goddesses were distinguished by their insignia; seers were clad in woolen garments over a shorter, less-full syrma; and huntsmen rolled a purple shawl around their left arms. Slaves wore leather jackets and light breeches or braids indicating their barbarian origin. In the fabula palliata (Roman comedies on Greek subjects and based on Greek models), actors wore chitons and the pallium, a cloak resembling the himation. In the subsequent, similar fabula togata, actors were costumed in the mantle and toga. The heroes of plays dealing with Roman history, called fabulae praetextatae, wore togas with the praetexta decoration indicating magistrates.

The fabula Atellana (rustic plays originating in southern Italy) were given both public and private performances. In the homes of patricians, young noblemen often took the parts of the standard characters—the bragging, greedy Maccus, the stupid Bucco, the foolish miser Pappus—wearing masks to disguise their identities. Their masks, known as personae, were decorated with hair; they were not worn by professional actors until introduced by the actor Roscius in the 1st century bce. Before the introduction of masks, wigs (galeri) were worn. Also, Italian comedians wore a flat slipper called the succus.

The garment peculiar to mime productions was a coloured patchwork jacket called a centunculus, and this name became applied to mime actors in general. At Corneto, a tomb painting depicts Stupidus (the fool of the mimes) wearing another coat covered with coloured patches, a tall pointed cap decorated with a tassel, and a square, short cloak known as a ricinium. Because of this garment, the mime players were also known as riciniati.

As drama in Rome declined, the mimes introduced plays on the theme of the oldish cuckold and the frail and plotting lover, which reached its bawdiest levels during the 6th century ce, as did the pantomimes featuring lavish licentious entertainments. Such entertainment continued to be presented until the fall of the Roman Empire later in that century. Through the early Middle Ages, jugglers, fools, and small mime troupes roamed Europe.