Conquering Ebay

A-Roving has now been put in the programme for the Bournemouth Arts By The Sea Festival and it is all official. We have general performance times, a ruthlessly organised costume bible, and a good friend and peer of mine Tanya Pye as hair and make-up and also dresser as required.

 

So far I have been sourcing from a mix of the actors wardrobes, online shopping and charity shops - but thanks to browsing I am now using ebay. Sadly I have until now avoided ebay, but after I used it to source a pair of plimsoles for one of our actors with size 13 feet I have been surfing the search engine and finding it incredibly useful.

 

I have had a good bit of luck the last few days hunting the charity shops - I have had to hold off on buying the jackets due to the change of season and jackets being more expensive but courtesy of ebay and some luck in boscombe I now only have 2 coats left to buy!

 

All that is left now of the costumes are:

Shoe's for Richard,

Hannah's Hat

Alana's Jacket

Making Nick's Belt

SCARVES

 

 

The scarves are going to be a mix of sourced from borrowing (from home, the actors, crew, friends etc) bought and where necessary made. I am currently stockpiling scarves and accessories. After the costumes are completely sourced, it will be time to move on to the luggage component and props.

 

A-Roving - Costume Designs

Here are my costume designs! There have been some minor changes since they were finished - the black jackets are now blue, and Nick's shorts are different but that asside these are the costumes.



 

Alex







Hattie, Peter, James



For Hattie I wanted a slightly quirky but still modern look, whereas Peter is a contrast in more traditional fisherman's attire. James is more of a beach-tourist style, which works quite well on the actor.

 

Jesamine, Hannah, Nick





 For Jesamine I wanted a very quirky look, nautical but not quite cliche. For Hannah I wanted a more elegant, upperclass style to ballance Nick and James. For Nick the idea was very much surfer meets (for want of a better term) beach bum, as it suits his frame.

 

Richard, Joscelyn, Alana



Richard is the 'pair' for Hannah, another more formal style while still being blue and white and looking traveled while not broken down. For Joscelyn, I wanted something different from the others but still inkeeping with the look and feel of the production - keeping with the nautical theme with the colour pallete, headscarf and belt while being a more modern, casual style. Alana's costume is, in a way, a cross in styles between Nick and James, part beach casual part surfer while still being quirky.




Declan

Declan's style is very similar to Peters in the more traditional fisherman's attire, including the hat and thick jumper.



 There has also been another change in that there has been a new cast member added! This brings our cast up to 12. Due to the budget restrictions and the short time period until the show, our director has requested that I source the costume from the actors wardrobe. This is going to be an interesting challenge with the majority of the cast not returning until the week before the show, but in this email has been a saving grace.

Updating - A-Roving!

To update you on my costume supervising for A-Roving, let me take you through the developments since my last post on the subject.

Over the last few weeks sourcing has begun in earnest with what is now a cast of 11. Having been given now two thirds of my budget I have completely outfitted two of my performers, with the majority of the costumes for 2 more, partials for the majority of the rest of the cast and I am coming out (cautiously) under budget still having over half of the money I was already given left to work with. Charity shops have been a blessing. Have currently been scouting charity shops in Ringwood, Winton, Christchurch, Highcliffe and Boscombe. Strangely very little has been needed to be bought in a shop other then some of the T-shirts and shoes.

For the majority of the performers, after sending them their designs I have managed to find items from their designs that they already own and put them on their costume bible sourcing sheets, but as a few of them own nothing from their costumes it has come - where possible - to the borrowing stage. With almost any production with a low budget costume, where possible, is almost always sourced from the actor or a friend/family member where possible. This makes it possible to source some of the bigger or more hard to come by items from shops and free's up more of the budget.

There was a minor issue with one of our characters costumes in terms of shoes - they always seem to be the issue. Having a small budget and a performer with size 12-13 feet who has no suitable footwear whatsoever is a challenge. Thankfully ebay provided the answer with a pair of plimsoles that I will be painting with fabric paint donated by my sister to achieve the right colour and look. This method is one that I am also using for another character in the performance who I designed very specific footwear for. This project has been all about thinking outside the box.

There has been one minor design change to one of the costumes - where one of the characters the director and myself had decided on plain blue shorts but in a stroke of luck I found in a Charity shop in Ringwood a perfect pair of blue and white shorts patterned with compasses. With the blue and white pattern not to bold or busy they were perfect. After consulting with the director we have decided to use them.

In another stroke of luck after a meeting last week with the director we were able to get into the AUCB Acting Department Props cupboard. This was a treasure trove for luggage and also supplied, surprisingly, a stretch of offcut fabric that I am going to use for one of the performers head scarves.

Photographs of the costumes will be put up soon - keep an eye out!