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!