A bit off topic but nonetheless useful!

Canterbury Tales is the next AUCB production, another colaboration between the BA Hons Acting course and our BA Hons Costume and Performance Design course, with the first performance next week! With the makers hard at work there is still a lot left to do, and as one of the non-imediate productions I rendered my services today to help out with the puppets.

 

As I only had a couple of hours I was set to work on the Satan puppet - maker Colleen Sherridan - who had pinned on the facial features, and I was asked to slip stitch on the horns and then applique stitch on the features. Designer Lauren Holman and Supervisor Katie Price were very happy with my sewing skills, and I managed to get the horns stitched on, the eyebrow and the nose 'slit' pieces. (photo's to come!)

This was a very theraputic break for me and allowed me time to think about my designs and my tutorial wth Pamela Howard.

 

Also, as I have helped out on this, I have been promised help from the Canterbury team for A Midsummer Nights Dream when the time comes!

Pamela Howard comes to AUCB!

Today was very exciting (and nerve wracking) as I was one of the third year designers to get a tutorial with Pamela Howard! For those who may not know Pamela is a famous costume designer/director who has worked on productions across the world! So as you can imagine the idea of having a 1-1 with her was a bit intimidating. However, talking to her she was professional but lovely, she gave me such useful advice on my work it really helped me to get a better handle on the project.

 

At the moment I have been having some issues designing for my fairies. When you have so many different people coming in telling you add so many different - and often conflicting - influences to just one costume, it can become very easy to get too focused on trying to get them all in and all to easy to loose sight of the main point of the character and the play. Titania, in the play as it was written, is the direct opposite of Hippolyta, the dark mirror image - where Hippolyta is the light Titania is the dark, they are two sides of the same coin. In getting too mired in cultural, political and conceptual influences you can lose sight of this.

 

She also gave me some useful design advice in terms of composition. She believes I have good design instincts but my composition of my designs - in particular the relation of the figures to each other - needs work.

 

This has helped trendously in terms of helping me sort this out in my own head. I was finding myself starting to get scattered as all the different influences fought to find a place on the costume and it was begining to show in my work - but this has helped me hone it down so that Hippolyta's costume can inform Titania, as they are indeed the two sides of the coin, and the rest is in its own way secondary.

 

I am finding that as the project goes on the challenge of working between so many people becomes greater, but I am finding that while difficult this is just pushing me further as a designer to not just inorporate what others want but also to find my own footing and my own voice as a designer.

Designing away

Today was the tutorial for the first of my initial ideas - and it went better then I had expected! There were a few problems, if there weren't at this stage I would be worried it is after all early stages, but the comments I received from tutor Gareth were very constructive. I have been advised to make my Athenians more linear and angular, my fairies more realistic and everyone more sexual.

I will be looking further into the Indian culture, specifically at Ashrams and the communes started in India in the 1970's. I have - currently - six Indian dancers also to design for, gender unknown but I know I have at least one of each gender as Theseus and Hippolyta are doubling as Indian dancers. 

There has been one piece of advice that while at this stage is all well and good could lead to problems - specifically in BUDGET later on. I have quite a large number of costume changes for the four lovers (Demetrius, Lysander, Helena and Hermia) already, and I had planned on two for the forest - from their Athenian clothing to their undergarments, then from there neat undergarments to a set that were identical but broken down as they have been pulled about and torn in the forest. Gareth has now suggested that I have numerous doubles, in various stages of wear, that they could change every time they leave the stage. Aesthetically this could work very well, as a visual representation of their losing their Athenian neatness, but can the budget support that many costumes? 

We already currently have over 40 costumes between mine and Olivers with minimal costume changes, and this would push that even further. With a £1000 budget - this is starting to look like its going to be tight. We shall see!

Fabrics - Inspirational Quest

In search of a little more inspiration and to see if anything would jump out at me, myself and merry band headed to Hansons Fabrics in Sturminster Newton. I can say in all honesty that this place is incredible, quite literally a warehouse in the countryside chock full of fabrics, trimmings, fastenings, patterns...the list goes on, it is definitely worth a look!

 

In short order I covered a counter with fabrics with interesting patterns and colours, ones that I want to play around with for inspiration, buttons with fascinating patterns, colours and shapes. I find that, as with the designing on the stand, having something to physically work with really helps my creative process and allows me to find shapes and patterns that it is very likely I would have missed.

 

Moving forward

Today I finally finished my character analysis! I have started designing the Athenians, I am making good headway but for the fairies I wanted to do some designing on the stand. I have only tried designing on the stand once, for the Breathe project, and it worked very well for me, I found it really helped my creative process and helped me come up with idea's that I dont think I would have otherwise.

I started out playing with paper and building on the figure. With the fabric that I had spare in colours that fit with the colour scheme, I began adding fabric and here's what I came up with!

 

 

 

 After playing around with shapes I came up with this front paper shape that I think really works for Titania's costume, so at the moment I am building on and around that. I enjoy the organic shape, almost like flower petals, while at the same time it is a nod at the ruff's of the shakespearean age.

Breaking Down the Script - Character analysis

As of Monday I am deeply entrenched in character analysis! Thankfully knowing the script well by now I know relatively where to look but it is still a long and complicated process BUT at the end of it I am emerging with a much better idea of the character, past history and personality of the character as portrayed in the text which is giving me a much better idea of what the character would choose to wear. It is also giving me a better idea of how many costume changes are needed and where!

 

At the moment I am working from a combination of that and the idea's that were drawn up in the meetings that we have had. I will upload some of the initial sketches as soon as I have anything worth showing - it is all at the very preliminary stages yet! 

 

Seven weeks to go until all the costume designs, and the set design, are to be completed!

Concept decided! Let the designing begin!

Today we had the meeting with Ken and the added bonus of Liam from digital media! This was a great opportunity to talk about what was wanted from each department.

Digital media will now be doing the ensemble fairies with the exception of four (ten if the Mechanicals are doubling as dancers) dancers for the Indian dance. The Ass head for Bottom is now also going to be enhanced by digital media! In the last meeting Oliver had a brilliant idea for the ass head that played on the love and death concept that as Titania saw the head as beautiful it would appear beautiful - but when she woke up and saw it was an ass head it would be made to look like a dead ass head by digital media enhancement. This has been approved and before the transformation moment (to dead ass head) the ass head will be translucent - in the terms that Bottoms head will be visable occasionally.

 

We also finally established the number of cast members! I was confused about the number or characters and costumes needed due to the dancers and the named fairies  - as I had been told the names of all the actors but those - but now that has been resolved! Mechanicals are going to double as the named fairies. The final cast number is 24 characters overall - with four being the dancers for the Indian Dance which includes the actors playing Theseus and Hippolyta doubling as dancers, and the Mechanicals as the named fairies.

 

The concept decided on was...Concept A! Looking at the conflicts - the right and left, the visual separation between the Athenian's and the fairie's - and extremes of love and death carried throughout the play. The sexual suggestiveness of concept b will still be there but in a more subtle way, as will the Indian influence in the fairies.

 

I think we all came away knowing that this was the stronger concept in terms of the fit with the directors vision and in fitting the play.

 

...and so, the designing can now start! This is going to be a whirlwind of character analysis, research and initial doodles - it always starts at the doodle stage! - that will rapidly progress and grow. I will keep you updated as we go along!

Last check on Concepts!

This was the last chance for Oliver and myself to go through our concepts and make changes before tomorrow's meeting.I have prepared three mood boards - two large, detailing the inspiration for each concept visually, and a third smaller one that looks at the Greek history of the time and conflict in visuals.

The concept A mood board contains research images from Labyrinth, Pans Labyrinth and the Jim Henson film the Dark Crystal.

For concept b I have been looking at the symbolism in the play and the sexual references and I have found they have a connection in the use of flower metaphors and references, in particular to the rose and the pansy.
An interesting piece of knowledge about the pansy - it is the flower referenced in the play that Oberon and Robin use to drug both the lovers and Titania. It is actually a common mythology that, as referenced in Shakespeare's text, the pansy was turned purple by being hit by cupids arrow. It is also a historical belief, my research has uncovered, that the pansy was used in celtic tradition as an ingredient in a celtic love potion.
The mood board for this concept has research images of paintings from Georgia O'Keefe, Freida Kahlo, images of real life flowers and images from the Pink Floyd film The Wall - the flower scene.

But back to the concepts;
We exchanged emails and I went over Oliver's written version - and on the whole it was brilliant! There were a couple of points where colour notes had been included from suggestions in previous meetings that I felt the need to take out as colour is something that will come from character analysis and progression which is a stage we are not at yet. I have highlighted the changes in red, including a couple of points that I was unsure of, and we are going to go over them tomorrow before the meeting to make sure we both are happy with it and agree on what we are trying to say.

 

On the whole I feel we have come up with two solid concepts that would both stand under scrutiny and are both equally good. Tomorrow's meeting will tell and give us the direction we need to finally start designing in earnest with eight weeks to go!

Hashing out the Concepts

Today myself and Oliver met to hash out Concept B. I had done mind maps on both concepts and it had raised a worrying conclusion - though they started in the same place, both concepts came to the same place. When presenting two so-saying different idea's it is important that they are separate. So myself and Oliver met to find a concept starting point that was relevant to the play and the idea's Ken had given us on the previous meeting that led to a differing visual conclusion.

The Concepts as they stand now;

Concept A; Focussing on the conflict; between left and right, the Athenians and the fairies, and the theme of love and deaths that carry through the script - looking at Pan's Labyrinth

Concept B; Focussing on the sexual and surreal, the confusion of perception and the symbolism in the play from a visual perspective, visual suggestion - looking at O'Keefe.

This gives a lot to look into but as I am a more visual person and Oliver is good at formulating idea's into a cohesive written plan we decided that I would come up with a visual collection of images and idea's and Oliver would do a write up of the concepts and we would go over them for a last check on Sunday to make any changes before meeting on Monday morning, before the meeting with Ken to present our concepts.

I am a lot happier with this now that we have two set and different idea's for concepts that are both supported by both the script and Ken's vision of the play.

BUT an issue has come up that has become a bit of a concern - the cast list. At the moment there are a set 15 principal characters to be designed for by myself BUT there are to be dancers for the Indian dance, and the possibility of fairies doubling as Indian dancers. There is also the possibility of the ASM's as scene changers needing costumes. This is a serious issue as - as the designer - I need to know how many costumes to design and who for. This issue is going to be another one to be sorted out at the meeting on Monday.

Moving forward

Today's meeting was a bit of a jumble as we both took the base concepts that we came up with in the last meeting and ran with them  - but that's what meetings are for, to work through the problems until the solutions are left.

I had focussed my initial research on the dances - and good news on both counts! I managed to find not only a Greek couples dance that is similar in basis and attitude to the Tango called the Ballos, but I also managed to find a link that would allow for the Tango to be used and still fit both concepts. The tango, would be danced between Hippolyta and Theseus - Hippolyta being Theseus fiance, and also Queen of the Amazons. The Amazon being in South America it links in the latin American dance influence nicely.

I also started a mood board on Pans Labyrinth, and through that I started looking into the David Bowie film Labyrinth from the 1980's. Both films have parrallels with A Midsummer Nights Dream - both involve the real world being invaded and changed by the magical, and vice versa, though Pans Labyrinth has more parrallels with the era and setting we are going for - it has the civil war (though in Pans it is Spanish and ours it is the Right Left conflict) it has a normal human being transported to a magical world initially in the woods, which alters her and the 'real' world.

Oliver had written out a preliminary idea of the two concepts, and we spent the meeting going over them, agreeing that we needed to continue working on the first concept but it was a sound concept - but that the second concept needed further attention, and arranged to meet again on friday.

A change of plan - a different direction - and meetings meetings meetings

Today I was set to meet with Oliver at 9 to consolidate our idea's and research in preparation for our meeting with the director - Kenneth Robertson - and the digital media lecturer Liam in the afternoon.

Having spent the weekend researching everywhere I could I found out a startling fact. There was no hippy or drug culture mentioned anywhere in 1970's Greece with the natives, and the most reference found from that time was on a group of hippies who moved from the west of Europe to one of the Greek Islands in search of a refuge to live peacefully and were driven out by the nearby towns people. There is no mention whatsoever that I could find of any kind of drugs in Greece at that time.

Politically this was a time of great political and civil unrest. In an effort to stop the unrest and increasing violence of the riots between the right and left factions that it seemed the government was unable to control, a small group of Greek colonels plotted and enacted a coup, in one night having all opposition, real and suspected, of there impending takeover arrested they took control of Greece in 1967. They were not removed from power until 1974, and during this time the laws in Greece were rigid and the punishments brutal, there are stories of unlawful arrests and imprisonment, even torture, from that time as the Junta as it is now known sought to wipe out all opposition. This lead me to the conclusion that for the lovers a hippy Lysander, being an Athenian man, would not be supported by history.

A possible alternative to this would be to still have the lovers from opposing political sides and go for a more subtle approach perhaps with the concept being about conflict and division - the opposition of right and left, the lovers, the difference between Athens and the woods, ect. Upon meeting with Oliver I was incredibly relieved to find that he had come to the same alternative that I had. We went over our idea and the work we had started over the weekend and then went to meet with Kenneth and Liam.

Unfortunately Liam couldn't make the meeting, but we did get to have a long meeting with Kenneth. On broaching our idea, supported by our research, Kenneth revealed that his research had found the same thing and that it went so far as, he believes, long hair was banned in Greece at that time.

Notes from the meeting;
- Pitched the left vs right idea to Kenneth and he liked it, and suggested we look at Z, a documentary film by Costa Gravas.
- Egeus and Peter Quince are to be the same actor so a strong difference is needed here so that the actor will not be recognised.
- A record player is a possible prop in the first scene for the dance, the Tango Libertard (liberty tango is a destinct possibility.

There are some further notes, but they are minor about the actors playing the characters and we have been asked not to reveal these as the actors themselves have not been told - it is going to be a surprise.


Following this was a meeting with Gareth, one of our tutors which later turned into a double tutorial with Oliver.
Notes;
-Good pitch to Ken.
- Looking at the parrallels with Pans Labyrinth! The war, the woods, the magical world. Look at Pans Labyrinth for inspiration.
- Look possibly at Athenians as right wing and the woods and fairies as left wing rebels?
- Peter Brooke version might be a good adaptation to watch
- The dances ; Spanish/latin american Tango - Northern European/English Clog dance - Indian Dance
Muddying of the era's and locations through so many multicultural influences - look into possible Greek alternatives of dances to pitch to Ken OR go with the concept of influences being taken (cherry picked) from all over the world. Costume Context - if the dances are taken from all over the world this needs to be reflected in the costumes.

During the meeting I recieved an email from Ken which changed the era of setting from 1970 during the dictatorship after the colonels coup to 1960 before the colonels coup and dictatorship. This changed aspects that we had aleady discussed. Due to this, Gareth suggested that Oliver and myself should come up with two concepts to pitch to Ken based on the meetings we have had so far.

initial idea's for the concepts;
Concept A - Pan's Labyrinth inspired, looking at the conflict and the darker, more subtle side
Concept B - Multicultural, more abstract

Myself and Oliver have agreed to work on these idea's and our concepts and to meet again later in the week to go over our idea's and research.
I feel that so far myself and Oliver are both looking more ar
 

Meeting with the Director and moving forward

The project has already started and already we are full steam ahead! After an impromptu meeting with the Director myself and Oliver have and initial setting and time to start working from and a lot of research to do. Kenneth has a lot of idea's of things that he wants to include that is going to make this a full and fascinating project to work on. 

THE INITIAL PLAN

The setting: Athens, 1970 at the time of the Colonels coup.

The concept: Psychedelia and drug culture.

Theseus is a Colonel in the Greek military, one of the colonels in the coup (this is artistic licence as in the script he is a Duke). The opposing lovers Demetrius and Lysander, both vying over Hermia, are from the opposing greek political factions who were involved in a conflict at the time -  the rigid Right wing against the more hippyish Left wing. 

The fairies are going to have influences of India, as there are so many mentions in the text of time they spent there and this needs to be incorporated in the costumes.

There are also going to be three dances incorporated at various points in the production, a tango (or other passionate dominant dance) an Indian dance and the potential for a clog dance that one of Oliver's characters, Nick Bottom, may do. These types of dance are not something that immediately spring to mind when thinking of adaptations of the production, but as it stands as they are explained the dances do make sense in terms of the characters. 

Research research research!

1. what kind of conflict was happening politically 

2. what the drug and hippy culture was like in Greece in the 1970's

3. the dances

A Midsummer Nights Dream! Back to work!

The time has come for the beginning of the much anticipated - and dreaded - third and final year on the course! As such it is also the start of the first of two major projects of the year.

At the end of last year we were given a list of options for our first project, and as with a professional job we were asked to apply for the three options that we most wanted to do, in order of preference. I am delighted to announce that I got my first choice and shall be designing costumes for the AUCB production of 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'.

The performance is to be held in April of next year and we will have ten weeks to get the designs finished for hand in on the third of December. Next term I shall be able to work with the makers and potentially a costume supervisor in overseeing the realisation of my designs.

This project comes with an unusual twist. Part of the set design is going to be taken by digital media, working in collaboration with peer and set designer Oliver Barker. Due to Oliver therefore having less of the set, Oliver is going to have a small set of the costumes as well.

The Characters and Division!

In the play there are three distinct sets of characters that, while they do meet and co-mingle still remain as separate groups. 

These groups are ; The Athenians, The Fairies, and the Mechanicals.

The Athenians are a group of eight characters with the possibility of an ensemble. They are made up of the four lovers, Demetrius, Hermia, Lysander and Helena being the four mains from this section, followed by Theseus, the Duke of Athens, his fiancé and Queen of the Amazons Hippolyta, Egeus Hermia's father, and Philostrates the Duke's master of revels.

The Fairies are pretty well explained by the name - they are a group of fairies headed by their King, Oberon, and Queen Titania. Following them are Robin Goodfellow (in this to be Oberon's son) and the named fairies  Moth, Mustardseed, Cobweb and Peaseblossom. 

The Mechanicals are a group of performers, come together to perform a piece for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. They are made up of six characters; Nick Bottom, Peter Quince, Snug, Francis Flute, Tom Snout and Robin Starveling. 

After discussing it between us and with our tutors we have decided that for Olivers costume section he will take the Mechanicals, with myself designing for the Athenians and the Fairies. This means that I will be designing for fifteen characters, the majority of which due to the text will have costume changes. 

We have also found out who our director is - Kenneth Robertson, one of the tutors from the acting department and we are both very excited to be working with him.

This is set to be a collaborative project across the University, with myself and Oliver from the BA (Hons) costume and performance design course working with the acting course and with digital media. It is going to be a very exciting and demanding project where communication will be key among all parties involved. I have already bought and begun to annotate my script after reading it through and cannot wait to get started!