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).