Tatiana (Tanya) Moiseiwitsch (1914 2003) was a theatre and costume designer of international renown. One of the launchers of Ontario's Stratford Festival, she designed the Festival's unique thrust stage and all the productions on it for the first four years. In total, she designed 29 Stratford productions. But she has also created costumes for many of the world's greatest artists, including Alec Guinness, Edith Evans, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Vanessa Redgrave, Diana Rigg and many others. This costume sketch was prepared for the character Dull, played by Mervyn Blake (1907-2003), long-time mainstay of Stratford's stage. Moiseiwitsch stated that the main focus on the stage was the actor and that a stage costume removed from that context has no life of its own. Nevertheless, here the viewer can see Moiseiwitch's grasp of line, form and texture. The sketch and swatches are not just artifacts from the 1961 season but art in their own right. Reference: Tanya Moiseiwitsch: Designs for Stratford, 1992.
