Challenges for Creating and Staging Interactive Costumes for the Theatre Stage

In this paper, we discuss the requirements and critical chal-lenges for creating and staging interactive costumes in the theatre. Different to other types of performance, theatre cos-tumes are secondary to acting. Our investigations are based on two practice-based case studies: a self-directed design research within a student project, and a collaboration with a local theatre house, where interactive costume elements were developed in a real-life setting. These reveal require-ments and challenges for the design process as well as the effective staging of interactive costumes, the biggest chal-lenge being how to integrate these into existing structures of traditional theatre houses, and requirements for the cos-tumes themselves. Because interactive costumes integrate technological features and traditional analogue crafts, they require interdisciplinary collaboration and transcend estab-lished boundaries between departments in theatre houses, challenging established work processes and structures