Loyce Arthur

For the past ten years, Arthur has researched and brought to the stage a number of plays that utilize masks from many different parts of the world, including Italy, West Africa, India, Indonesia, the Caribbean, and Japan. Masks reveal as much as they conceal. They have thousands of uses from re-enforcing collective and individual belief systems, to entertaining, to exploring the unknown, to revealing the truth. Her work as a costume designer for the Department of Theatre Arts, Division of Performing Arts, is greatly influenced by a view of masks as something a performer wears from head to foot. A performer in the costume/mask of a human or non-human comes to life through the voice, movements, and attitude of the performer. He or she becomes someone else. Some of the most intriguing and exciting masks/costumes are those inhabited by men playing female characters or vice versa. Performance history across the world, past and present, is full of examples of these kinds of characters and the great skill, inventiveness, and masterful illusions that go into enacting these figures. From Peter Pan to drag queens, from Elizabethan to Kabuki coquettes, theater artists have donned mask/costumes and “played” with what it means to be male or female. Arthur will present a few sacred and profane examples in her presentation.

Associate Professor Arthur, who joined the CLAS faculty in 1998, is a member of the Department of Theatre Arts (Division of Performing Arts) and head of design.