CMU School of Drama


Thursday, October 12, 2017

Traveling 'Downton Abbey' exhibit will let fans see sets, costumes.

www.usatoday.com: For Americans who never received an invitation to Downton Abbey —- meaning everyone outside of Cora Crawley's Yankee family — there's a second chance. The beloved PBS Masterpiece drama, which ended its six-season run last year, is coming to America.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I love and miss Downton Abbey, and this traveling exhibit sounds just as exquisite as the show was. From a design perspective, the show was inspirational! It managed to capture the essence of the 1920s and involved so much research. From set to costumes to lighting, this show was a near perfect replication of that era, and the drama kept the audience captivated through every season. Unfortunately, I am unable to see the location where Downton was, so bringing this exhibit to New York will make the American fans flock to New York to get a taste. Plus this exhibit can help the show carry on, like another season, because sadly it has ended. I would be very intrigued to see this exhibit, and would love to go to New York to see it right now!

Monica Skrzypczak said...

This show was so amazing and I love seeing that have created a traveling showcase of all the work that went into the show. I’m really impressed that they are traveling with the set as well as the costumes. I feel like most traveling experiences of tv show (of which there are few) only bring the props and costumes around and maybe some pieces of the set but not whole rooms and flights of stairs. It would be really intersting to get to experience walking through the halls and seeing the full set. I wonder if they recreated the set from scratch to make it a real room or if they kept the tv set style of not having one or two of the walls so you can give the cameras room to get the right shots. Now I’m really interested to see how they present it. Since they call it a “fully immersive experience” I’m leaning more to them rebuilding the set to be a full room, but you never know.

Vanessa Ramon said...

As a newly discovered Downton Abbey Fan, this is so exciting. I imagine that even for those who have never seen the show, it could be an interesting and immersive history lesson. Ever since I started watching the show I have been amazed in how easily the show transports you to another time. The cohesiveness of the world the show creates is truly incredible. As you get further and further into the show, the time changes and so does the world. This change is done very smoothly. I am glad that this exhibit is coming to America because this is a true treat in learning how England life was lived throughout these staple times. It sounds as though they plan to make the exhibit experience as cohesive and trans-formative as the show was. I think it is really cool how they are even going so far as to rebuild so of the sets.

Sylvi said...

I feel a little conflicted about this exhibit. I definitely want to see it, but it seems strange to go to a museum to see a recreation of a time past instead of actual clothing and tools of the time period. I would think that a museum would and should mix Downton things in with educational and actual artifacts of the time. TV shows and movies that are so period accurate are a window into the past. They make people excited about a time period and want to learn more. Museums should exploit this interest and expose the public to more details about the time. So much of modern society was created at the turn of the century, it would be so exciting to see what laws were put into place that affect us today. There could be an exhibit on what art was being created during this time and what books people were reading. I think Downton was so successful because it was accurate to the time and connected to historical events that everyone knew about like the Titanic and the Ponzi scheme. The exhibition should follow suit and bring in the real world to their creation.

Madeleine Evans said...

I am really excited about this exhibit. The idea of The exhibition being "a "fully immersive experience,"" that "promises to connect fans to the Downton characters, costumes, locations and events of England's post-Edwardian era, from World War I to the Roaring Twenties" is a really wonderful concept that I hope will pay homage to a wonderful show and important part of history. I like that the exhibit is not just focusing on one element, but that "Visitors...will get an upstairs/downstairs look at the Crawley family estate, walking through re-creations of sets that will take them into the kitchen, servants' hall, Carson's pantry, Lady Mary's bedroom and the dining room," in addition to the fabulous costumes of the show. I do hope that the exhibit puts the items in a historical context as well as in the cannon of the show, and is both a nice dose of nostalgia mixed in with history that can serve both to educate and entertain.

Kat Landry said...

I actually just heard about this exhibition from one of the folks working on it at the SATE Conference last week. From what I've seen, heard, and now read, it seems as though it is going to be a very beautiful, authentic look at the television show and play directly into the hands of its audience. I think these kinds of exhibitions are really exciting for fans of the story, because they are able to get a little starstruck over the costumes, props, and scenic elements of a show they've only seen on a screen before. It's a fun way to get up-close and personal with the things that excite them. I've seen the traveling Harry Potter exhibition twice, and I was definitely very excited both times. Being a little bit older and wiser, I'm not sure how enthralled I would be by the props and costumes anymore. Like Sylvi mentions, I think we could go just a bit deeper on these exhibits. For Downton, for example, there could be a lot more history involved. Let's see some artifacts from the time period used for research to create these props, etc. There actually is an exhibit that is doing this, which I also learned about at SATE. It is an Indiana Jones exhibit that takes you on the path of his adventures, but also includes artifacts and lessons about the places he visits along the way. That, to me, is a much rounder experience for an exhibit.

Josh Blackwood said...

I’m torn. I watched the series on TV as well as documentaries about Highclere, the actual estate and home to the Carnarvon family for generations. Exhibits like this are interesting in the sense that it brings fans up close and personal to the sets, costumes and props used in the filming, but more so because it will provide students of design an opportunity to get up close to the elements of a show. On the other hand, this is all stuff created for the TV show. Nothing is real, everything was created. Where are the actual items from the time period? One of the best ideas would be to take a costume or prop from the show and stage it next to it’s actual counterpart or item used as inspiration. There are museums all over the world that have collections of clothing and other items from the time periods that the show covers. Borrow from their collections to display side by side so that visitors get a better understanding of fabrics, style, cut, color, shape of outfits from this time or of the materials used in making pots, pans, silver and so forth. I would travel to see this exhibit for a design perspective. If I want a truly immersive experience, I like to go to the Met in New York or to the National Gallery in D.C. where I can enter whole rooms from a time period. Not something filled with props that were built in the last decade.

Nicolaus Carlson said...

I have never actually seen even so much as a clip of Downton Abbey but this exhibit intrigues me. It is always really fascinating to see the costumes that people wear for film up close because you can see the detail that was put into them and rightfully so as they need to last seasons sometimes, which means years and years of use and traveling. What is also fascinating is that it seems that they are bringing sets to recreate some of the places which is something I have never seen or heard of before; and so instead of an exhibit that you can attend it seems to me as more of a place you are invited to see. I really like that because you aren’t just an observer then, as you actually are, but you are also being immersed in it. They also aren’t just setting this exhibit up to be seen but they also have unseen footage being released which appeals even to me although I have never seen it. I find that funny and ironic. But to say the least it is a cool thing that they choose to do. Overall, I’m really excited about this exhibit and am already trying to figure out if I can make it there.

Rosie Villano said...

While I don’t watch Downton Abbey, I greatly admire the sets in the costumes created in the show. I think the quality and volume of costumes is remarkable in terms of the world of television. I have a lot of respect for the designers on this show because of the continual historical challenge. Rather than just having one era that is extended, the show spans a least a decade giving the designers the challenge of having to transition fashion through time. If I can I would love to be able to go to this exhibit and study the costumes more closely. Overall, I am interested in how the From what little I have seen of the show I am impressed by level of detail in the show, and how they were able to make the clothes. I agree with Nicolaus, as someone who loves being immersed in a design world, I can understand why fans would be really excited.