Production 1 - done and noted!

Despite the flu, the production went well! I gathered a good amount of notes and some surpising conclusions. No names will be mentioned in this blog or my dissertation due to privacy issues -  the conclusions and notes are general, not quotes and not character or person specific.

 

I did glean some interesting conclusions. Strangely, while the majority of the participants knew each other well, the most involved and comfortable interaction occurred while discussing the performance and suspicions of the participants, rather then when conversation turned to peoples personal lives and events. I found this interesting as, due to the participants having little to no performance experience as the 'production' went on they began to build a personality - through accents or characteristics - for their character, in a few cases even develop backstories to a degree!

Approval!

Today, I travelled up to Chichester and met with the organiser of this years Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party, Becki Short, to present my initial designs, and I am delighted to announce that they have been approved! I explained that for the most part little on the designs would change to the final designs with the exception of the March Hare, and now all that is left is to present them, fully rendered, in A3 for final approval before the making can begin.

 

Also myself and the head maker will need to meet for fabric sourcing to work out an initial budget for the costumes to present to the organiser.

Seven Deadly Sins - Modelling

I have been asked to model a costume designed and made by fellow AUCB costume third year Tanya Pye. This has been an ongoing personal project for Tanya for the last few months, and the photoshoot is now tomorrow, 60 miles away in Havant, near Portsmouth. This is very exciting, as I will be participating in a photoshoot with 7 others, modeling a costume in a proffessional photoshoot. This will be interesting experience as while I have had experience in acting so I understand some of the pressures and problems for them, which has helped me be a better costumer and backstage worker, but never had experience modelling so I hope that this experience will help me gain better allround experience to draw from.

 

The costume I shall be modelling is based on the concept of Gluttony, and while I sent my measurements to Tanya several months ago I have not had an actual fitting - but considering my measurements have changed very little (if at all) I doubt that this will be a problem, especially as considering the main component of this costume is a corset!

The corset itself, unlike the 1890's Parisian corset that I have the most experience with, I will be modelling a boudoire corset. This is definitely going to be a new experience in more ways then one - please stay tuned for more details!

The Murderer is...

Tonight is the night of the murder mystery.

Location; Domestic
Setting; 1950's Hollywood Christmas

Characters; 8, each with a vague 2 line character profile each

Participants; 9

This is a very common form of immersive performance, which many people dont realise IS immersive performance. The audience are also characters and participants, and no one is left out unless they choose to be and even then its difficult. Proffessional murder mystery companies - where a proffessional team is hired to decorate a venue and provide in many cases scripts and characters, as well as proffessional acting participants, are most commonly used for special occassions such as Hen Night's and Christmas, but is also used for corporate team building events. The games, where the are no strict proffessionals directly involved, are used for a variety of occassions, the same occassions as above but also commonly for New Years events and Birthdays.

This implies that the general purpose behind these events is to pull people together who may or may not know each other.

 

I know the people who are attending the murder mystery tonight but not at all well, as though I have known some of them since childhood I see them only once or twice a year.

 

Also as an interesting dynamic I have also been asked to put together costumes for the character profiles I have been given. Due to knowing little of the characters and only a vague idea of who will be given who, I have come up with signature pieces that can be worn over the participants general clothes.

 

There is also an added dynamic - none of the participants, appart from myself and three of the other participants know that this is a murder mystery, though none of us know more then the general information of setting and the vague character profiles. This will make it more interesting in seeing how people will react and interact as their characters.

Mad Hatters Initial designs - DONE!

I now have completed my initial designs for all the characters, and I believe almost finalised my design for the White Queen costume. For myself to class it as a final design it must be approved by the organiser but I believe she will like it. I have stayed with the themes running throughout - modern meets Victorian and a multitude of button's. I have used a combination of the research that I gathered for my recent summer project for AUCB - a 100 year time line of 1900 to 1999 - and used this to create a Victorian-Esq silhouette and a blending of modern and victorian style decoration in the form of fabric flowers as last year made of organza and lace, but with modern fabrics and small pearlescent and crystal buttons decorating the flowers and scattered to decorate. I want to use a white satiny fabric for the majority with white or silver organza for the sleeves.

 

The only costume I am currently considering doing a total redesign on is the March Hare. I have designed it with a variety of textures - there has been one element to the costumes that has been dictated by the organisers and that is that all the animal characters are to be in fake fur body-suits. This is, considering last years heatwave and resulting heatstroke in the actors, something I would usually avoid but it is something that the organisers are adamant about - therefore I am going to try and find a way to make them much cooler and more ventilated to provide for the comfort of the performers.

 

In working with the bodysuits as a base I have been able to design I have designed a knitted waistcoat of a different pattern for each half, adding to the oddness of his character - however I am not entirely satisfied with it and believe it needs further development.

Dissertation issues - and solutions!

For my dissertation I am writing about immersive performance and whether or not this has lost its classification as theatrical performance and has instead become spectacle.

However, the majority of immersive performances, due to the fact that the majority are held outside, are held in the summer and therefore in terms of looking for performances to go and see there has been a distinct lack.

 

While I worked on the site specific performance 'A-roving We Will Go' over the summer, which did have immersive elements it was not, specifically, an immersive performance. This did, however, lead me to looking outside the conventional forms of immersive performances and instead look at the performances that fit the parameters of immersive performance.

 

I did manage to find a very well known and aclaimed company doing a run of immersive performance in London but unfortunately it opens eight days before my dissertation is due for hand in and therefore would not allow me enough time to write about it and form conclusions based upon it in a way that would gel with the rest of my essay.

 

This in turn lead me to public Murder Mysteries. In a public murder mystery, the audience, while spectators, are also a part of the performance in that some may be given lines, they have the chance to explore the scenes and interact with the performers if they choose, and are often involved in the unmasking of the 'culpret'. This makes it, by definition, immersive performance.

 

I managed to find one locally in Poole, where a company which runs murder mystery events was to stage one in a small restaurant, which was to take place tonight, however just as I was about to leave for the event they contacted me to let me know it had been cancelled due to people being unable to attend, I suspect due to the high level of flooding in the area.

 

As this was one of the only two immersive performances I had managed to find in a 130 mile radius after searching for a month, I was understandably worried. However, this has led to an idea that could be a very interesting perspective to write about. After looking at the murder mystery games online to do some research on whether the events would class as immersive performance I found a company that makes the murder mystery games that does class them as immersive performance and therefore have decided to stage one for research.

 

I have also been sent the information for another immersive performance which is currently running in London - The Architects. This is an immersive performance in a converted biscuit factory, and despite the fact that it is being run through the National Theatre has been plagued by bad reviews. This makes it an interesting study as for such an aclaimed establishment to put on a show that has been subject to such criticism, could this be due to the nature of the performance itself? Immersive performance has a history of bad critiques.

 

I have managed to get tickets of it, and between these two performances I will have two performances that, while in the same performance type, are far from each other on the scale of immersive performance.

The Christmas Break! Minus the break

Now that hand in is over for the first part of A Midsummer Night's Dream, while I will still be thinking about it and looking over it in the holidays, I have jumped straight into the 2013 Mad Hatters Charity Tea Party!

 

This is an anual charity event in Portsmouth for Cystic Fibrosis Kids Portsmouth, made up almost entirel of volunteers. Earlier this year I worked as costume assistant to Tanya Pye on the 2012 event, and I am delighted and honoured to have been asked by the organisers to design the costumes for the 2013 event!

 

After discussion with the organisers I am designing costumes for the characters;

 

Alice

The Red Queen

The White Queen

The Mad Hatter

March Hare

White Rabbit

Door Mouse

Tweedle Dee

Tweedle Dum

 

In addition to this, I will also be designing some of the props, set pieces and 5 hats/fascinators for the main staff to wear. This is due to the fact that in the last event, the organisers and wardrobe team were difficult to spot in the croud for those who needed to find us (the characters, stall holders, security etc.) and this will greatly help with our visibility.

 

Upon discussion with the organisers, as I am still a student they agreed that I should design the costumes during the Winter break when it would not effect my grades for the course and the designs would be ready for realisation in January.

 

 

Research

I have been looking at adaptations of Alice in Wonderland as this is the basis of the event, though the actual performances are related in characterisation and not specifically in plot to the Alice and Wonderland of Lewis Carroll. Also, this is a contemporary event, meant to relate to children. Therefore I am designing the costumes to be a blend of the contemporary and Victorian - bringing in the era of authorship and tying it in with the language often used, in memory from the last event, particularly by the Queens

 

 

Set/Props

The main prop/set pieces I am designing are the 'trees'. Last year the event organisers hired wooden fold out painted prop trees that were fairly unsuccessful as, due to this being an outside event with the uneven ground, constantly moving children, the wind and no way to secure the trees they were constantly falling over. This being the case I am experimenting with the idea of using willow, wrapped in fabric. This would make them cheap, light, and health and safetly consciuos as we could use tent pegs to secure the trees into the ground so that no one would trip on them and they wouldn't fall over, the fabric would prevent the risk of any splinters, and they would, once the shapes had been formed, dried and taped, be durable and easy to assemble.

Final Post on SP!!!! And its all over...

This project has been, ultimately, the most transient I have done to date, with the sheer amount and variety of changes keeping up has been the ultimate challenge, and one that considering the obstacles of constant deadlines and the number of collaboratives to stay in keeping with I have managed to master.

In hindsight, if I could go back and do anything differently it would be to better stick to my own design judgement. When I felt the designs were becoming too realistic for Kenneths vision of the piece, I did voice my concerns but allowed myself to be steered along anyway even though I knew the risk. In hindsight therefore, and if the situation ever arrises again I will better trust my own judgement calls on the designs, as while this has been highly collaborative the designer, when they see something right or something wrong that they can justify in the designs must, when they feel there is strong enough cause, have the right and the conviction to stand up for their designs.

I also feel that I wish I had had more time. With the constancy of the costume changes I often feel I did not have time to do the needed in depth contextual research to be fully informed as the costumes were changing, and there is therefore the risk of historical errors, specifically in locational historical accuracy. However, as in the 1970's Greece was, due to the strict military regime, it reads as 1960's, and in this case the communication to the audience is paramount that it is indeed the 70's. Therefore I have taken artistic licence, in terms of suiting the costume to character and making it more recognisable as the 70's. In doing this I have endeavoured not to compromise the historical integrity, and locational integrity of the costumes, but there are therefore elements that, while 1970's, are not specifically GREEK 1970's.
This is a gamble, but one that I feel is necessary in order to keep to Kenneths vision of the piece and audience communication.

On the whole, I have found that working with such  wide team of collaborators to be a challenging but rewarding experience and has, strangely, helped me better find my own voice as a designer. While it has been a challenge trying to co-ordinate so many different opinions and idea's into the designs, and there have at times been conflicts that have forced me to have to make difficult decisions, often at the cost of time needed to be spent on other designs in order to get the more fluctuating designs settled in terms of concept, this has also meant that I now have a better understanding of what is required in industry, and the courage of conviction needed in standing for your work while still being part of a collaborative creative team.

I have enjoyed very much working with Oliver and Kenneth on this production and anticipate enjoying it next term as we realise the production.

The final production meeting - before hand in

Oliver and myself had set up a meeting with Ken, our director, John, our AUCB production manager, and Pete Cliffton, our lighting designer. This has been the first meeting that has had all of us, and now with the finished designs, it was set to be a fairy tense moment - with a week left till hand in and so much work and change already up to this point there was always the worry that something would be deemed wrong and need changing.

Thankfully, everything went tremendously well. John has now set with us that he will want to at the very least cost up the set at the begining of January, and is confident that if the costumes require more budget if it can be saved on set then it can easily be transfered into the costume budget. Pete and Ken have both approved, and love, the costume designs which is a great relief and a joy. I had not expected the joy allongside the relief that they enjoy the costume designs. Again, as I have said before, I think that when you have put so much time and energy into a production in any capacity it is impossible not to become emotionally attached to it.

Now to do

The final three sets of designs + the reworking of Titania

Organising, tidying and binding my sketchbook

My final 500 word evaluation

The Final Push continues

The designs keep on coming but I am meeting the challenge! With 37/8 character designs to hand in, with 6 days until the final deadline, it is all go from here. Thankfully I have progressed the majority of my designs to the point where they do not need to be altered further, however a couple I have had to change, specifically Lysander and Demetrius from act 3, the final scene with them before the lovers are discovered. Origionally, after speaking with our director Kenneth, I had planned on them to, like the ladies, be in their undergarments. However on research I discovered that in the 1970's, the most common underwear worn was in fact y-fronts, boxers not coming in until the 80's/90's and long johns only being worn by the more elderly gentleman.

 

This being the case, while I did initially design for both to be in y-fronts, due to the physical nature of the performance and being unable to ask the actors if they would be comfortable with the risk involved by the unstable nature of the costume, I have done a secondary set of designs for this scene for submission, being the two in an even more broken down form of their costumes, with y-fronts being worn underneath. That way if the actors feel comfortable enough to strip down to their more period specific underwear they will be able to.

 

With the constantly evolving and changing nature of this project in terms of designs, today I have had to make some changes on my origionally submitted work plan. Looking back to my work plan, I scheduled in a lot of fabric sourcing trips and experimentation sessions - however, the designs being so much in flux I was unable to fabric source as many times as I origionally planned due to not having a concrete set of designs to source from and spending my time working on the designs themselves. This is something that will I imagine always be an issue to a degree with such swiftly changing projects, however due to past experience I believe that on this project the speed with which the changes have occurred have been abnormaly swift and radical.

 

However this has also made this project an incredible experience in terms of expanding my creative flexibility and getting me to research from such a wide variety of subjects for a single project, and in considering things that I have not had to factor in on any projects so far such as the racism issue with the Indian influence in the costumes, and nudity in terms of the fairies and the lovers.

Designs - The first selection of Finals!

Due to an error in communication, I believed that I needed to have a selection of my final designs completed for the begining of this week. On discovering that this was not in fact the case I have been left with a handful of designs that are actually ready for submission. Details may change, but here is a taster of some of the designs as they stand.

Theseus and Hippolyta Act 1 Scene 1 - the Tango!

Hermia and Helena, Act 3 scene 2 as they are fighting in the forest

Titania, Queen of the fairies - not decided if this is her final design but it shall change very little if it changes at all

 

And lastly, we have the Mechanicals as fairies - there are two layers to these costumes, the under layer, predominently blue, was designed by Oliver Barker, who is designing for the Mechanicals - all except for when they are fairies. After discussing these characters with Kenneth, our director, as they are double cast for the purpose of in the text when they are 'recognised' by Bottom. Therefore we have shown this by having there base costumes visible, but altered. I have hiked up all there trouser legs and rolled up their sleeves, given them 'henna' tatoo's to fit with the other fairies and overlayered them with 'fairy' garments being highly textured, and patterned with leaves printed on and worked into the fabric to mimic the other fairies costumes.

The rest of the designs are still being fully finished and rendered, but this is a taster for you of what is to come!

 

Overall I am proud of the designs that I have created in collabouration with Oliver and Kenneth/ It has definitely been a learning curve with so many factions having input on the costumes and finding my own voice to fit with that but thankfully due to my previous work I believe I have managed to present myself well and come through this collabouration - so far at least - with a set of designs that meets everyone as much as they can without losing the voice of the character and Kenneths vision of the piece.

43 Designs in 3 Days?!

No, this was not possible. As it turns out, this was also not necessary! Due to a misscommunication, I believed that for today I needed to formally present my designs. On collating my timeline and cast list I realised that personally I am designing 43 costumes! Believing that I had to have all my finished designs done for Monday, I began the mamoth task of creating and polishing my designs to a standard that I could be proud of.

 

By early yesterday night I had just over 20 and was still going strong when the information filtered through the costume grape vine to me - wires had been crossed. I did not have to have all my designs done for today. The presentations were, in fact, to practice our presentation technique for our assessed presentation at hand in - two weeks away.

 

But, as a result of this I now have just over 20 designs, some that still need some minor tweaking but all that are up to a standard that I would be proud to submit. This has also taught me that if I am willing to go without sleep, I can accomplish an extraordinary amount in a short amount of time.

 

A good thing to learn today, from our visiting lecturer Gareth, was that my presentation technique has dramatically improved since the beginning of this term. I am putting this improvement squarely on the amount of meetings and mini-presentations I have had to do - very often on the spot - to Gareth, Oliver, Kenneth and even our head of course Rebecca Pride, often with little or no warning as they are walking through the studio's.

 

This has also taught me that no matter how far you think you are through, there is always more to do so - onwards!

The ever changing fairies

In my last meeting with Gareth, I decided to bring in three strong options based on our previous tutorials to how the fairies could look.

Yesterday was the big decision meeting to decide which one would be progressed! The one that Gareth chose was a very naturalistic view, tan coloured with long flared trousers, Oberon bare chested and Titania in a crop top.

 

Today I saw Kenneth, our director, on a query about the Mechanicals doubling as fairies, as I am designing there costumes as fairies, and he brought up Oberon and Titania. On seeing the designs, he did not like them as he found them too real, too much like ordinary western people. I had worried previously that in making them too much like real people of the 1970's that we were straying too far from the original concept, and this confirmed my fears. However, on discussing them further with Kenneth I realised that I had come up with something similar to what he wanted earlier in the design process about two weeks ago. After speaking with Kenneth this time, I think due to the amount of meetings we have had in the past we came up with a very clear idea of the concept and the feeling the designs should have, and I have come away with a much better idea of what will fit Kenneths vision of the piece.

 

On this decision I went to speak to my head tutor and year group leader Rebecca. As I had been in tutorials with Gareth with an opposing decision made just the day before I did not want it to appear as if I was ignoring the direction that I had been given by my tutors, however if I did not follow the director's view and vision of the piece then I would be failing not just the brief but the production itself. On discussion with Rebecca we agreed that I would need to defer to Kenneths vision of the performance over the guidance by Gareth, but that I would try to incorporate, if possible, aspects of the previous design, if only in terms of colour scheme.

 

I am now set to reconcile the two designs.

To London!

The grand fabric sourcing trip to London! An incredible day hurting the fabric shops with collabourating designer Oliver Barker, this had helped me tremendously. Sourcing for two sets of characters, with one having three different current incarnations, was at times verging on muddling but I had a couple of fantastic finds that I am very keen to use. I like fabric sourcing generally earlier in the process, even preliminary fabric sourcing just because it can do so much to inform the designs, and this time was no exception.

 

With a bag full of samples I have now got a much clearer idea of what the finished garments might look like. I will have to go back to London for some more sourcing but on the whole I believe I now have the bulk of what I need. A few of my samples came from higher end shops in Soho that unfortunately will not fit the budget at all, however with a clear sample of the fabrics that I want an alternative more fitting the budget can be sourced.

 

My favourite find has been this ;

 

 

A gorgous practically transparent fabric full of oranges, reds and blues that is covered in indian patterns that because of there translucence and size do not make the fabric look too busy, and with the colours and way the patterns have been place look very seventies psychadelic. I love the subtle but striking effect of the fabric over skin.

Fabric on skin to show how well the pattern shows up against skin as a background.

 

however what I feel makes this fabric incredibly exciting is when it is put over the red fabric I want to use on one of the Titania designs.

 

 

It is subtle but at the same time makes what is otherwise a beautiful draping bold red fabric have an edge, a subtle sheening pattern of colours that shift and change with movement as the light shifts and picks out different colours, and gives it an exciting mysterious quality.

The final countdown - 3 designs

Today I was struck with a quandary. I have progressed through the concept to two different designs, both fitting with the concept and our directors vision of the piece.

 

I was called in by guest tutor Gareth who has asked me to bring him in a very specific design on Monday, based on some research he sent me, but that I had used to inform my other designs. While I liked the idea's that he included in what he was asking me for, I have not progressed to this, and and I am not sure if it fits with our directors vision of the play or entirely with our concept as it has progressed.

 

Therefore with yet another change presented to me, and with three weeks remaining until the final hand in, I am taking the advice that Gareth gave myself and Oliver in the first week. When faced with a set of characters that is being continually changed, put down strong options, and ask for a decision. I feel this is incredibly important this late in the design process as with such a short amount of time left I have spent the majority of my time and energies on the fairy designs and while I want them to be the best they can be, I do not want my Athenians to suffer from lack of attention.

 

Also the worry is that if I do not get the look of the fairy's pinned down to one set of designs that they will continue to be changed right up until the deadline and beyond, to the detriment of both the costumes, concept and characterisation.

 

Therefore I have requested a meeting with all my tutors on Monday with Oliver so that I can present them with the two options that I have progressed to and the design Gareth has requested so that I can finally get clear decision on where to take them.

 

I think that is one of the things that can make it difficult to be a student designer. When you are in industry you answer primarily to the Director and the production manager, and if you have one your collaborating designer. When you are a student director, you answer not just to them but to any and all tutors that you have who are informing and grading your work. It can therefore be difficult with so many people having creative input to create a design that will please everybody.

 

This is what I seek to do, I will not allow myself in the process to lose sight of the concept and our directors vision of the piece.

Post Battle - onto the war

A fairly dramatic title but unfortunately accurate. After battling the flu the last few days, I am back on my campaign to get A Midsummer Nights Dream to live up to its pottential. There has, however, been another issue thrown in to think about. While the Athenians, the Mechanicals and the set are all coming allong and progressing beautifully, an issue has been highlighted in a recent tutorial with guest tutor Gareth with the fairies that parallels a similar issue the recent AUCB production faced when the design concept was brough into question during the design stage - namely, how to avoid the issue of racism with the Indian influenced fairies in a predominantly white cast.

 

Thanks to this I have been looking more at Ashram culture in the 70's and the western migration to India. This has let me to a more cohesive look with the fairies that I hope will negate the racism issue, while still holding to the Indian influence that Ken hoped for. The only issue I can see is they have moved slightly further away from appearing otherworldly. This could be a problem but I hope I have left enough of a strangeness - beyond the realm of normalcy - that this air of magic has been preserved.

 

There is one aspect of the characterisation in costume that has emerged that I feel fits wonderfully in terms of them being a blend of Greek left-wing rebels and magical beings recently from India - dreadlocks. Initially I was not sure if this would work as the characters of the fairies have not - to my knowledge - been portrayed this way before, but the more I thought about it and sketched, the more it makes sense. They are fairies, they are rebellious and outside any form of human society, why should they try and be neat barring there own vanity? In my interpretation they have dreadlocks, interwoven with leaves and flowers and gold decorations, things they have picked up and fancied for themseles. Titania has a head piece that goes with this - a gold stylised peacock feather with a jewel for the 'eye' of the feather. The gold in this also picks up the gold of the gold henna I have used on the skin of both Oberon and Puck, as I feel not only will this beautifully contrast with the skin of the actors but also highlight the majesty and otherworldliness of the characters.

 

Now that these have truly started to come together I can start on the fairy dancers. After consulting with Kenneth our director it has been agreed that as I had hoped the ASM's who are being fairy dancers will remain as fairies for the duration of the performance.

There is a specific reason that I wanted this. The AMS's will be visible on stage at various points in the production moving props and set pieces, changing the worlds from Athens to the fairy wood and back, though not all the way, and it struck me that this is what the fairies do. They invade the human world and set about changing things, altering and creating havoc and mischief. On explaining my reasoning to Kenneth he agreed that this was a good idea and made a lot of sense, so I now have four fairy ASM's to make into fairies.

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!

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.

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).





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.

 



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!

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.