The Mad Hatters Weekend

Entering the Madness

Friday

In getting ready for any performance there is always a good deal of last minute preparatory work, and this was no different. I arrived in Portsmouth on Friday evening, and immediately started working with Tanya Pye - costume designer and wardrobe mistress - and helper Jeremy Emery on finishing the last of the costumes.

This involved making more roses to complete the White Queen dress, slip stitching the sleeves of the Red Queen dress, adding zips and numerous other small tasks.This was a good chance to use a range of skills that I have learned from my course at the AUCB and to utilise new ones that I have learned from this production - being the making of fabric roses. The atmostphere of the crew was one that very much suited the production, and though it was a lot of work to finish the excitement for the production carried us through.

Jeremy Emery, helper, making roses

Tanya hard at work

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Saturday

Starting just after dawn, we were off finishing the tails of the White Rabbit and March Hare costumes, and then on to getting all the costumes, props and cakes ready to be transported to the show grounds. There was an additional task as well - finishing and painting a prop Tea Pot made of pappier mache. This was a task that required teamwork, especially when it came to painting and drying, and I can honestly recomend this as a team building activity for performance groups.

Wardrobe Team battling to dry the giant tea pot as the performance looms

This was a very time sensitive task, as we were dressing the actors at the performance grounds and would have very little time between arriving and the begining of the performance.

The performance itself was achieved brilliantly, the actors ready and excited. From the costuming side, the ears of the March Hare and the tail of the White Rabbit were issues that required problem solving during the performance. The March Hare had ears attached to hair clips and had unfortunately short hair. We used hair clips to hold the ears in place as best they could but in the end there was only so much that hair clips could do. The White Rabbit's tail kept becoming removed from the costume during the dances as his was one of the most lively characters of the performance. We fastened the tail on with safety pins, but in hindsight it might have been better to have tacked in the tail if only until the end of the show to hold it in place.

Entire cast 'on-stage'

Alice and the White Quees

The Tweedles

Thankfully due to the heatwave we did not have the problems I faced with outdoor performance before (in that it was cancelled due to bad weather) and the audience had a good time sat in the sun. We raised a very good amount for the charity Cystic Fybrosis Kids of Portsmouth.
I am glad I was involved, and hope to be involved again next year.