Saturday 29 September 2012

A-Roving Performance Day!



Finally the day arrived, the performance day for A-Roving We Will Go, the product of months of work for Katharine and myself and an intensive rehearsal week for our 9 actors. Thankfully, unlike the day before for the second dress run the day could not have been better - sunny with patches of cloud, so it was not too hot but it was warm enough for Alana's short's without her being cold, the only change was Peter's scarf which we decided he shouldn't wear as it would be too hot. The other character I had concerns about was Declan in terms of getting too warm but he assured me that he felt perfectly comfortable.

Tanya, on hair, make-up and dressing, and myself had given the actors their call sheets for hair, make-up and costume with guidlines of do's and don'ts at the dress run the day before. Our day started at 10:15 with myself and Tanya arriving to make sure that all the costumes were laid out for the performers as we had left them the day before. I set about ironing the items of the smarter characters to fit their more well turned out persona's while Tanya set out the make-up and hair supplies in preparation for our first actor at 10:30, Alana arriving with Hannah, the first two for hair and makeup. We went through the actors with, where possible, the actors having their make-up done first, followed by costume to avoid any make-up being dropped down the costumes, followed by hair. A few had to be put in their tops and t-shirts first but for the most part it went as planned.

There was a minor hiccup schedulewise when all the male actors, travelling down together, got stuck trying to find parking and ended up being 15 minutes late pushing the schedule to the limit, but we remained calm and kept them going when they lost focus and were soon back on track.

One of the roles we were taught is important for long costume days is that the actors can lose energy quickly, and all of us having performed for a film shoot in our first year we all had experience of this. This being the case it has become general practice for us to bring a range of sweets - nothing chocolate, sticky or powdery - to long costume days to keep the actors going and keep morale up on what can be a quite boring process for them. The night before myself and Tanya had visited a local sweet shop and bought a wide variety of sweets for the actors, which helped tremendously during hair and make-up and importantly between the two performances when engergy dipped dramatically. However with sugar, sandwiches and encouragement energy was soon high once again and they were set for the second performance.



There was one slightly more pronounced costume issue between the two performances when Jesamine, in getting out of her dress and putting it back on accidentally ripped the bodice of her dress on the broach that was holding the top together. Thankfully myself and Tanya were able to repair the worst of the tear and by also moving the pin it was not noticeable.

The performance went off perfectly in terms of costume, as did the performance itself with an incredible  audience turn out far better then the day before. The idea of Declan, James and Jay's travelling performance being to ask people directions and ask them to follow worked amazingly well, with much more audience participation in actually responding and following so that by the time they got to the performance space they had a fantastic following. I estimate that they had in excess of 200 people watching by the end of the performance.


Friday 28 September 2012

A-Roving - Dress Run!

Today was finally time for the dress run of the show! This started at 9:30 with myself and Tanya Makeup & Hair and costume assistant arrived to get the actors into costume straight out.
After a short costume parade - as this was the first time seeing all the actors in costume at the same time - they moved onto a warm up and initial inside rehearsal in the studio.





This was also the first time myself and Tanya had gotten to see the full rehearsal, complete with the characters that the actors had created from my costume designs. It was interesting to see how each actor had taken the nuances of the costume and used it to create a personality. For Nick and Jesamine it was characters with mischief and clownish innocence, for Hannah a very prim and proper character, for Declan a west country fisherman, the list goes on.

I think one of the most startling things was Declan's performance as he only started learning the accordion 2 months ago in order to be able to play it in this production and is already proficient.

After some last words of advice and last minute direction the actors and myself and Tanya headed out to the performance site. The company of 9 split into three groups of three and headed to their starting points. Having allowed two sets of shoes - one for fair weather and one for wet - all the actors were in their good weather shoe's as the sun was shining and the ground was relatively dry but as it was cold the actors were wearing all layers of their costumes. As a caution against colder weather I have gotten Jesamine navy tights as they go with her costume, and added a scarf to Peter's.
The three groups - having synchronised their timers at the starting point being the rehearsal studio - all started as one in their different area's and travelled through the park to arrive at the main site.

 Each group had planned their own initial performance, with always an element of improvisation to compensate for crowd involvement and problems along the way. The initial group with Peter, Hattie and Hannah did a performance about throwing penny's in the river and making a wish. Alana, Nick and Jesamine made there way to the bridge to play 'pooh sticks' and try and get passers by to play it with them. James, Declan and Jay's group were lost travellers trying to find their way about.

 The dynamics of the performance was different once it was in the open air and in the performance space. The energy of the performance changed, the performers gestures were bigger and even though the park was virtually empty the performance still managed to gather a crowd.

The idea was that, though they are all different, they are all nautical and come together as a cohesive group, albeit a motley crew. As an ensemble I feel the costumes work very well together.


The performance is full of energy and ad-libbing and improvisation, with a lot of jumping and dancing around. The costumes held up well and the girls who had the wedge heeled shoes had no problems with them even on the grass. However if the weather is bad or the ground is wet tomorrow I will switch them to their bad weather shoes.
 On the whole the costume's worked very well and there were no major issue's that arose from the dress run other then Hannah's hat. As it was quite windy Hannah was worried her hat would blow off and eventually did have to take it off and put it in her bag. As it was quite windy and there was no secure way to fix the hat to her head, I have told her that if at any point her hat starts to blow off it is fine to put it away in her bag but to try and keep it on as long as possible.
The hair bands and scarves are all being fixed into place by hair and makeup artist for the project Tanya Pye. As there was no time today for makeup and hair Tanya helped in capacity of dresser and costume assistant and was invaluable.
With the performance tomorrow the last pieces to do are put the finishing touches on Nick's starfish belt and make sure that tomorrow morning Jay takes the duffel bag which is to be his bag for the performance and gets it travelled (being muddy).




Monday 24 September 2012

Last of the Bags!

Sunday brought a meeting with two of our actors who were latecomers to rehearsal week - Jay and Alana. Thankfully there costumes were fine with the exception of Alana's shorts which may have to be rethought due to her appedix recently being removed. For this I am trying her in another pair which are a size larger then she usually wears in the hopes they will be comfortable but if not then I will have to change the bottoms, most likely to jeans.

Today - the last of the bags arrived in the post! The vintage suitcase, which I had greatly anticipated arriving was a bit of a shock being far bigger then I had thought it would be - one of the perils of buying online!
Pre-umwrapping with my shoe (size 5) to demonstrate the size of the package
 
Post-unwrapping - a very large beautiful vinage suitcase
 
This could be a problem but I will take it into rehearsals tomorrow and find out. It is larger then the other luggage but all of the luggage is unique and unique to the characters.
 


Friday 21 September 2012

First Rehearsal - and Costume Parade!

Today was, for myself and Tanya, the first time meeting many of the cast members for A-Roving - and just in time for the costume parade, and for Tanya chemical allergy tests for the make-up and hair products.
 
Our day began with a last-minute run to the 99p shop to get anything we thought we would need - spare make-up, spare hair brushes and face wipes etc. The major find in the shop though was the stand of blue and red umbrella's by the door! Now we know where to get them from in the event of bad weather.
 
Getting everyone into costume at the same time as checking all the costumes and making changes and substitutions is very tricky with a cast of ten, even with only eight of the cast members present today, but we managed it and well. There was only one major change, and that was to Peter's coat - Peter owns a blue Gillet that he had brought with him and it worked so well with his costume and luggage we decided that he should wear that instead. There has, in all this, been a bright side to Richard, one of our cast members, being unable to be in the production. Still having his costume, and having the good fortune to have a few of the male actors a similar size and build meant that they could be used for spares - much needed spares as it turned out because despite being the right size at the waist the trousers for Alex were shorter on him then I wanted, but when I tried him in Richards and rolled up the legs to the right height they were perfect. The shoe's are now being used by Declan due to when he pulled on the shoe's that I had picked up for him the seam on the side ripped.

Also there has been another shoe substitution - while the shoe's that I had bought for Peter were good and went with the costume, he had a pair of blue shoe's with anchors on that he had forgotten he owned and brought in today, and they were so perfect I substituted them.
 
Scarves have turned out to be the biggest issue - I have fabric that I am turning into scarves for the production but the problem with this is, in order to get the colours and patterns that I want I need to get cotton, but cotton does not tend to look right as scarves. The tones are too flat somehow. Therefore I will do what I can with what I have, send out another call for scarves to borrow, and go back to the fabric shop tomorrow to see what else I can find that is suitable.
 
All in all though it has been a very successful day!

Tuesday 18 September 2012

Triumphs and Tribulations

This week has been fraught with a mix of the good and the bad. The good - all the costumes and bags/luggage are sourced and under budget! This has been a mix of Ebay and Amazon purchaches, borrowing and sourcing from my own collection. There remains only 2 duffel bags for me to finish making (more on this to come) and Nick's belt to finish.
 
In the not so good news - two of our cast members have had to withdraw. Joscelyn and Richard. Thankfully for Joscelyn there were only two parts to her costume that I sourced that were not from her wardrobe and they are being used now among the rest of the cast in case of problems, but Richards presents us with some interesting issues. The majority of the costume is past the return date and while most of it would not fit the other performers builds there is nothing that can really be split among the others. I am therefore trying to find out what I can still return, and the rest will wait until the costume parade on the first day of rehearsals to see what can be done.
 


However, there may be a solution - with our newest cast member Jay. Up until now it has been agreed that Jay's costume will be sourced entirely from his wardrobe, and I have had meetings with Jay and gone over his wardrobe to contruct a costume from his own clothes. Now that Richard has left the cast though, there is the possibility of putting Jay, at least in part, in Richards costume. This all depends on whether they are the same or of a similar size, so this will have to, in part, wait until the costume parade on the first day. One thing we have been able to ascertain is that they are the same shoe size - and shoe's have been the most pressing issue with costuming the cast so on that at least there are options.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

MOVING TIDES!

The 9th of September 2012 and Moving Tides was amazing - the turn out from the schools was wonderful, the atmosphere was charged with excitement and the crowd was loving every minute of it!
As a motivator and the only AUCB student to work with a school who could make it on the day I was given a costume from one of last years AUCB productions and permitted to walk in the carnival with my school Wyke Regis. The children were brilliant - excited and enthusiastic. Getting to see them all in costume for the first time was amazing, seeing them all together and doing the dance they had been taught in the procession as we travelled around Weymouth.
 
Just seeing all the schools and costumes together really brought home to all of us I think just how much work by so many people had gone into it, and how it had all managed to come together.
 
To my absolute joy, the BBC filmed the carnival and actually spoke to the kids I was working with during the parade - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-19518472

Also take a look at the photo's on the Weymouth Echo online articles for it, see who you recognise - http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/localnews/9919920.Party_atmosphere_at_Weymouth_s_Jurassic_Mardi_Gras/
 

Thursday 6 September 2012

Moving Tides!

To anyone who has been reading for a while, the project that started this blog was Moving Tides, the Weymouth childrens carnival. With 700 children, Moving Tides was part of the cultural Olypiad taking place a couple of weeks before the Olympics started. Unfortunately the day before the carnival was meant to take place, it had to be cancelled due to the weather - all of Weymouth flooded, there was torrential rain and the wind was high.
 
I am delighted to report that Moving Tides is back on, and its going to be bigger then ever as Moving Tides is now part of the closing ceremony for the Paralympics in Weymouth. It will be this Sunday, starting at Weymouth College.
 
This is very exciting for the ten of us at AUCB who worked with the children and teachers designing and making the costumes as we will finally get to see the costumes worn together and take part in the carnival. All of us are precessing with our schools - with the exception of Andrew, who will be wearing one of the large scale costumes built by our third years (now graduates) as Neptune! Complete with blue beard.
 
For anyone who hasn't seen about Moving Tides - here are a few of the costumes the school I was working with will be wearing, made in workshops by the children from my design.
 


 Keep watching for Sunday's update or better yet - get down to Weymouth! But if you can't, then catch us on the news, we will be there.

The Countdown Continues

The Meeting

The last few weeks have been a constant series of charity shop trawling sessions, ebay hunts and sales shopping to get the last of the costumes.
 
Today was my first meeting with the director in nearly a month, and I am delighted to report it went very well! With all the costumes sourced with the exception of Richards shoes and Alana's jacket, and she was happy with all of them. I am also delighted to report that I am still coming out under budget! The problem that we had last meeting was - with the weather being so bad at the begining of the month with no sign of improvement in the offing and it being an outdoor performance - the problem of if it rained or was cold. This being raised I set about adding jackets, coats and jumpers to the costumes for contingencies in-keeping with the rest of the individual costumes. Now though the weather has turned to an inexpected Indian summer and it is unseasonably warm - thankfully this just means that if it is a warm day then they can leave off their heavy layers.
 
It was good to lay out all the costumes - despite the fact that items are still to be brought in by the actors from their own wardrobes - as it really showed the costumes coming together as a group despite the different styles the colours really bring them together into a cohesive ensemble.
 
Now the only things left to do are -
  • to source the two remaining items,
  • make Nick's starfish belt and the scarves,
  • and source/make the luggage.
Today's task is going to be to make a duffel bag. Having made one for GCSE the director gave me some advice on construction as I have never made one before so tonight I shall be experimenting.
 
There has also been another addition that myself and the director are jointly sourcing - with the weather being so changeable, umbrella's are the go-to item. With Peter's coat - a Regatta waterproof and an amazing find on ebay - there is a hood in the collar but due to the character costuming he is the only one. So, umbrella's (to suit the characters where possible) and where possible borrowed waterproofs!
 

Bags and Luggage

Looking at the styles of the costumes, and the variety that we want to achieve while still keeping the characters a cohesive group the luggage I am aiming to get for each character is;
 
Rucksacks - Nick, James, Jay, Joscelyn
Duffle Bags - Declan, Alex
Suitcases (vintage style) - Peter, Richard
Satchels - Hattie, Alana
Handbag - Hattie
Pull suitcase - Jesamine