Dr. Faustus | HM Costume Design

The Tragical Life and Death of Dr. Faustus:

In the Fall of 2022 I designed Dr. Faustus at Randolph College under Director Stephanie Holladay Earl. Our concept for the play was to set it in the Victorian Gothic vibe, sometime around the 1890s since the show was going up right before Halloween. I wanted to challenge myself to do a time period I had not done before and the creative team wanted the haunted house atmosphere.

I constructed all of Dr. Faustus's costume pieces, minus the boots and socks. I really felt that Faustus was a moth drawn to the flame, therefore there are moth elements on her costumes. I hand embroidered both of the death moths that are on her brown vest. I really loved the Victorian Gothic designs that have a lot of nature elements and textures in them. I tried to add different nature details throughout the show.

For this show, I also learned how to 3D print so that I could 3D all of the horns worn by the main devils and extra devils in the play. I sanded them all and drilled holes in them to mount them on headbands or with elastic. The horns were painted to be inspired by embers, black and ashy, with red hot spots at the tips.

The Seven Deadly Sins are inspired by the shrouded statues found in cathedrals, with their crowned headpieces embodying an association with their sin. Those were all made in the shop.

For Mephastophilis, Lucifer, Beelzebub, and the other devils during the drag Faustus to hell scene. I wanted them to look scary with black make up leaking out of their eyes. The wardrobe team worked to do that. All individuals in the show who touch or work with dark magic also have black fingertips or hands to show the corruption.

Lucifer is also designed to come out at the end with his back sliced open, where his wings were taken from him after he was kicked out of Heaven. The 3 main devils also come in with ash-covered bottoms to take Dr. Faustus to hell.

All show photos credited to Jill Nance Waugh, Randolph College.